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JUNIOR-SENIOR 
HIGH   SCHOOL   ADMINISTRATION 


JUNIOR-SENIOE 
HIGH  SCHOOL  ADMINISTEATION 


BY 
CHARLES  HUGHES  JOHNSTON,  Ph.D.  (harvamj) 

PROrESSOR    OF    SECONDARY    EDUCATION,  UNIVERSITY    OF    ILLINOIS 

JESSE    H.    NEWLON,  A.M.   (Columbia) 

SUPERINTENDENT    OF    SCHOOLS,  DENVER,  COLORADO 

FRANK    G.    PICKELL,  A.M.  (Columbia) 

ASSISTANT   SUPERINTENDENT   OF   SCHOOLS,   CLEVELAND,    OHIO 


CHARLES   SCRIBNER'S   SONS 

NEW   YORK  CHICAGO  BOSTON 

ATLANTA  SAN  FRANCISCO 


Copyright,  1922,  bt 
CHARLES  SCRIBNER'S  SONS 


Printed  in  the  United  States  of  America 
B 


L^BAHY 

STAT-  TEAClEa  S  C    L  ^/M 


LB 


FOREWORD 


In  191 5  Charles  Hughes  Johnston  invited  me  to  col- 
laborate with  him  in  writing  a  little  book  in  the  form  of 
a  manual  on  the  administration  of  the  junior  and  senior 
high  school.  Doctor  Johnston  believed  that  there  was 
need  for  a  book  that  would  clearly  set  forth  the  best  ad- 
ministrative practices  in  the  best  American  high  schools. 
As  we  worked  on  the  problem,  however,  we  gradually- 
changed  our  plans  until  it  became  our  purpose  to  write 
a  medium-sized  volume  on  the  administration  of  the 
junior  and  senior  high  school,  in  which  we  would  en- 
deavor to  describe  not  merely  some  of  the  best  admin- 
istrative practices,  but  to  give,  sometimes  by  implication 
and  sometimes  directly,  the  principles  upon  which  these 
administrative  practices  should  be  based. 

Doctor  Johnston  was  one  of  the  foremost  advocates 
of  what  has  commonly  been  called  the  socialized  school, 
using  the  term  "socialized  school"  in  a  technical  sense 
that  will  be  generally  understood  by  the  profession. 
"The  Modern  High  School,"  which  Doctor  Johnston 
prepared  in  co-operation  with  a  number  of  men  and 
women,  principally  men  and  women  working  in  the  sec- 
ondary field,  was  the  first  book  to  treat  definitely  the 
problems  of  socializing  the  administration  and  teaching 
methods  of  the  high  school  and  to  attack  the  problems 
of  the  social  life  and  the  social  programme  of  the  high 
school.  This  book  was  a  pioneer.  It  was  devoted  to 
the  development  of  the  idea  of  the  socialized  school 


vi  FOREWORD 

rather  than  to  definite  administrative  procedure  and 
devices. 

At  the  time  of  Doctor  Johnston's  tragic  and  untimely 
death  in  September,  1917,  our  project  was  still  some- 
what less  than  half  completed.  We  had  practically 
reached  a  final  conclusion  as  to  the  chapters  to  be  in- 
cluded in  the  book,  and  most  of  these  chapters  were 
rather  definitely  outlined.  Some  had  been  written. 
But  our  work  had  already  been  interfered  with  by  our 
professional  duties  and  finally  by  the  outbreak  of  the 
war  in  the  spring  of  191 7.  After  Doctor  Johnston's 
death,  Mrs.  Johnston  and  the  publishers  decided  that 
this  book  ought  to  be  finished  as  nearly  as  possible 
along  the  lines  on  which  it  had  been  planned.  During 
the  war  period  this  work  was  conducted  under  the 
greatest  difficulties  on  the  part  of  all  of  the  friends 
of  Doctor  Johnston  who  have  assisted  in  the  volume  as 
it  stands. 

In  the  spring  of  191 8  Mr.  Frank  G.  Pickell,  at  that  time 
principal  of  Lincoln  High  School,  a  long-time  friend  of 
Doctor  Johnston  and  a  pupil  of  his,  very  kindly  consented 
to  co-operate  in  the  completion  of  the  book  and  became 
one  of  the  authors.  Mr.  Pickell  made  many  valuable 
suggestions  and  criticisms  and  contributed  about  one- 
third  of  the  chapters. 

Professor  Guy  M.  Whipple  contributed  the  chapter 
on  Adolescence;  other  friends  and  pupils,  among  whom 
I  would  especially  mention  Doctor  John  A.  Stevenson 
and  Miss  Clara  Mabel  Smith,  have  assisted  with  their 
criticism  and  suggestions;  while  Mrs.  Charles  Hughes 
Johnston  has  been  very  largely  responsible  for  complet- 
ing the  plans  of  the  book  as  it  now  stands,  for  editing 
and  writing  much  of  the  material,  and  for  carrying  the 
work  to  completion. 


FOREWORD  vii 

Those  of  us  who  were  the  friends  and  pupils  of  Doc- 
tor Johnston  believe  that  this  book,  with  its  many  de- 
ficiencies, represents  his  point  of  view  as  regards  the 
aims  that  must  characterize  our  secondary  schools  and 
the  methods  of  administration,  as  nearly  as  it  would 
be  possible  for  friends  to  represent,  frequently  by  con- 
crete illustration,  his  views  on  such  matters. 

The  following  chapters  were  either  written  entirely 
by  Doctor  Johnston  or  were  projected  and  partially 
written  by  him  and  completed  by  Mrs.  Johnston. 

Education  for  the  New  Democracy. 

Party  Platforms  in  Education. 

High  School  Terminology. 

The  High  School  Issue. 

The  Junior  High  School. 

Junior  High  School  Administration. 

The  High  School  Library. 

The  High  School  and  Modem  Citizenship. 

Acknowledgment  is  made  to  the  Educational  Review 
for  permission  to  reprint  "High  School  Terminology"; 
to  The  Library  Journal  for  "  The  High  School  Library  "; 
and  to  Educational  Administration  and  Supervision  for 
"The  High  School  Issue,"  "The  Junior  High  School," 
"Junior  High  School  Administration,"  and  "High 
School  and  Modern  Citizenship." 

The  remaining  chapters  were  written  by  those  who 
have  collaborated  upon  the  book. 

All  this  work  has  been  done  by  friends  as  a  labor  of 
love  for  one  who  contributed  in  a  large  way  to  the  de- 
velopment of  secondary  education  in  America,  who  in- 
spired many  young  men  and  women  to  experimentation 
in  the  adaptation  of  the  school  to  the  needs  of  boys  and 


viii  FOREWORD 

girls,  and  who,  in  a  brief  span  of  less  than  forty  years, 
made  for  himself  a  permanent  place  in  the  history  of 
American  education. 

Jesse  H.  Newlon. 
Denvek,  Colokaix). 


CONTENTS 

PAGE 

Foreword v 

Education  for  the  New  Democracy      ....  i 

Party  Platforms  in  Education    .     .     ....  34 

High  School  Terminology 6$ 

The  High  School  Issue 89 

The  Adolescent  Period 116 

The  Junior  High  School 137 

Junior  High  School  Administration       ....  152 

Curriculum  Organization 172 

Socialized  Recitation 187 

Supervised  Study 201 

Supervision  of  Teachers  and  Teaching      .     .     .  218 

Internal  Organization  and  Government    .     .     .  239 

A  Constructive  Social  Programme 254 

Some  Social  Aspects  of  Physical  Education  and 

Games 272 

The  High  School  Library 284 


X  CONTENTS 

PAGZ 

High  School  PuBLiaTY 299 

experimentalism  in  secondary  education       .     .  319 
New  Conception  of  the  Principalship  .     .     .     .337 

The  High  School  and  Modern  Citizenship      .     .  356 

Problems  Emphasized  by  the  War 381 

Bibliography 391 

Index 397 


EDUCATION  FOR  THE  NEW  DEMOCRACY 

Our  educational  test  is  coming.  It  has  not  alto- 
gether come.  Everything  in  our  national  life  is  to  be 
tested.  Our  schools  shall  not  escape.  America's  en- 
trance into  the  war  made  clearer  the  issues,  has  indeed 
helped  make  the  issue  itself.  Our  deeds  from  now  on 
must  still  further  clarify  this  same  issue.  The  war  is  a 
war  of  ideas.  We  may  make  peace  with  the  Germans. 
We  cannot  ever  make  peace  with  our  understanding  of 
their  ideas  of  government,  repressive  externally  imposed 
education,  and  subservience  of  individuality  in  matters 
of  morality.  Democracy,  none  too  clear  to  us  even  in 
our  former  so-called  peace  era,  is  nevertheless  our  su- 
preme and  overwhelming  issue.  If  democracy  is  de- 
feated, it  will  have  defeated  itself.  Defeat  will  mean  a 
divided  mind  among  democracies  and  within  democra- 
cies. It  will  mean  that  we  do  not  know  what  it  means, 
cannot  practise  it  under  trying  circumstances,  and  can- 
not spiritualize  it  sufficiently  into  an  impelUng  national 
emotion. 

We  have  in  our  schools  pretended  devotion  to  democ- 
racy. We  have  associated  with  the  notion  certain  more 
or  less  academic  ideals  of  humanity.  We  have  in  our 
histories  dated  it  and  prated  about  it.  We  have  never 
seen  it  as  a  world  wrought-out  possession,  formed  and 
modified  by  national  champions  other  than  ourselves. 
Ours  has  been,  especially  of  late,  a  safe,  smug,  geographi- 
cally protected  democracy.  We  have  scarcely  realized 
that  in  Europe,  far  out  of  our  imagined  zone  of  safe 
security,  our  modes  of  Hfe,  our  institutions,  our  very 

1 


2  HIGH  SCHOOL  ADMINISTRATION 

selves,  our  natures  and  strains  of  group  or  personal  indi- 
vidualities are  at  stake,  put  at  stake  by  ideas  and  rules 
of  living  together  that  violently  oppose  all  that  we 
hold  permanently  precious  and  sacred.  Shall  we  give 
up  our  temper  of  independence,  our  self-respecting  in- 
dividualism? Other  nations  apparently  are  in  spirit  as 
well  as  in  cruel  actuality  fighting  our  democracy's  crucial 
battles. 

No  school  children  and  few  school-teachers  can  go  to 
Europe  to  fight.  But  the  school,  no  less  than  every 
other  institution  of  our  democracy,  must  go  to  war  in 
some  way.  What  shall  be  the  nature  of  school  work  of 
a  nation  at  war  ?  The  subtle  changes  in  our  educational 
procedure  will  be  the  profound  ones.  Our  present  ag- 
gressive efforts  at  refinement  of  technic  and  our  elab- 
orate statistical  analyses  and  demonstrations  of  more  or 
less  obvious  mechanical  defects,  our  gross  or  mass  faults, 
good  enough  in  their  way,  must  not  be  checked  in  their 
process  of  technic  development.  There  must  be  no 
let-up,  indeed,  in  any  fault-checking  device  or  automatic 
pedagogic  help.  As  Agnes  Repplier  says,  however,  this 
is  no  time  to  make  a  national  issue  of  spelling.  The 
deeper  changes  will  result  from  clarified  objective,  the 
spiritualizing  of  the  motive,  and  the  end  of  education 
itself.  The  seriousness  of  life,  the  sense  of  our  common 
destiny  with  our  allies,  the  exhilaration  of  vital  co-op- 
eration for  magnificent  ends  upon  which  hang  tangible 
successes  or  disastrous  failures,  the  now  realizable  fact 
that  we  can  really  add  something  to  the  greatest  cause 
of  all  history  by  personal  sacrifice  and  energy— these 
motives  must  in  school  life  find  more  than  merely  aca- 
demic expression.  The  American  school-teacher  must 
think  out  a  programme  of  action  for  education  in  war- 
time.    Our  geography,  our  history,  our  language  work. 


EDUCATION   FOR  THE  NEW   DEMOCRACY        3 

as  well  as  our  applied  mathematics  and  science  and 
manual  training  and  domestic-science  training,  are  per- 
emptorily challenged.  So  is  our  physiology  and  our 
physical  education  and  all  that  contributes  or  might 
contribute  to  personal  efl&ciency.  A  school  or  a  teacher 
who  is  not  agonizing  over  the  translation  of  education 
of  whatever  grade  into  national  preparedness  exercise  is 
failing  his  country  at  her  critical  moment. 

Can  we  rescue  ourselves  *'from  the  only  alternative 
supposed,  of  a  world  of  clerks  and  teachers,  of  co-edu- 
cation and  zoophily,  of  'consumers'  leagues'  and  'asso- 
ciated charities,'  of  industrialism  unlimited,  and  fem- 
inism unabashed?  Fie  upon  such  a  cattleyard  of  a 
planet ! "  Thus  does  the  great  William  James  voice  the 
militarists'  romantic  view  of  plunging  into  war.  No- 
where but  in  such  states  of  high  elation  can  we  "weld 
men  into  cohesive  states,"  make  war  an  infinitely  search- 
ing trial.  How  can  we  at  home  and  in  school  feel  this 
civic  passion  and  "blow  on  the  spark  till  the  whole 
population  gets  incandescent"?  How  can  every  per- 
son in  the  nation  and  every  institution  wage  war  in  the 
interests  of  peace  and  safety  for  democracy  ?  Ours  must 
be  more  than  a  war  of  fear  and  of  merely  material  self- 
protection.  In  1910  William  James  wrote:  "It  would 
be  simply  preposterous  if  the  only  force  that  could  work 
ideals  of  honor  and  standards  of  efl&ciency  into  English 
or  American  natures  should  be  fear  of  being  killed  by 
the  Germans." 

Everything  now  is  war  for  a  while,  farming,  home- 
keeping,  dieting,  conserving  health,  keeping  cool-headed 
as  well  as  sewing  for  the  Belgians,  contributing  to  war 
funds  and  soldiering  and  sailoring.  For  the  schools 
especially  there  is  more  in  war-time  than  battleships 
and  great  armaments.     Minds  of  all  must  be  prepared 


4  HIGH  SCHOOL  ADMINISTRATION 

for  intelligent  sacrifice.  There  is  no  one  who  cannot 
contribute.  Effective  war  is  ceasing  to  be  mystical, 
and  is  a  "symptom,  biological  and  sociological,  con- 
trolled by  psychological  checks  and  motives."  Educa- 
tion can  help  overcome  the  "two  unwillingnesses  of  our 
imagination,"  which  hitherto  have  made  war  an  activity 
somewhat  apart  from  the  total  national  regime.  We 
can,  as  educators,  during  the  trying  times  just  beginning, 
paint  a  true  world  order,  gradually  but  not  insipidly 
being  decided  by  a  fascinating  kind  of  evolution,  and  a 
world  in  which  effort  just  as  supreme  and  humanly 
appealing  can  be  expended  where  contestants  can  mu- 
tually benefit,  not  destroy.  In  short,  in  war  we  can  be 
studying,  thinking,  and  developing  our  world  knowl- 
edge so  as  to  anticipate  and  appreciate  the  elementary 
principles  of  our  three  goals,  desirable  internationalism, 
nationalism,  and  democracy.  Many  American  educators 
are  praising  still  the  thoroughness  of  the  Germans  and 
their  ability  to  do  hard,  unbored  thinking.  They  are 
pointing  us  to  this  kind  of  method  of  educating.  They 
are  saying  in  effect  that  American  and  English  methods 
of  appealing  to  the  individual,  avoiding  too  much  super- 
imposition  of  external  authority  in  the  classroom,  for 
example,  and  encouraging,  even  to  the  point  of  more 
shoddy  work  in  the  initial  stages,  is  all  wrong.  They 
are  saying  to  us:  "Shift  to  the  German  methods  and 
beat  the  Germans  at  their  own  game."  There  is  a  fal- 
lacy here  somewhere.  Methods  are  hut  expressions  of 
the  philosophy  underneath  them.  There  is  more  method 
in  American  and  English  ways  of  education  than  the 
hasty  generalizers  suspect.  The  spirit  of  the  thing  is 
what  externally  counts.  Democracy's  method  makes 
the  spirit  that  will  win  in  the  end  in  war  or  in  educa- 
tion.    It  is  the  spirit  of  the  English  and  French  soldiers 


EDUCATION  FOR  THE  NEW  DEMOCRACY       5 

that  interests  us.  It  cannot  be  conquered.  Neither 
war  nor  education  which  looks  toward  the  goal  of  a  mili- 
taristic society  inspires  them.  Nor  can  it  be  for  us. 
Our  educational  philosophy  must  be  something  Uke  that 
of  William  James:  "That  in  the  more  or  less  socialistic 
future  towards  which  mankind  seems  drifting  we  must 
still  subject  ourselves  collectively  to  those  severities 
which  answer  to  our  real  position  upon  this  only  partly 
hospitable  globe."  "Intrepidity,  contempt  of  softness, 
surrender  of  private  interest,  obedience  to  command, 
must  still  remain  the  rock  upon  which  states  are  built 
— unless,  indeed,  we  wish  for  dangerous  reactions  against 
commonwealths  fit  only  for  contempt,  and  liable  to  in- 
vite attack  whenever  a  centre  of  crystallization  for 
military-minded  enterprise  gets  formed  anywhere  in 
their  neighborhood." 

Making  thus  educational  capital  out  of  this  unavoid- 
able immediate  conflict  into  which  our  whole  nation, 
schools  and  all,  has  been  forced,  why  should  we  not  as 
educators  endeavor  systematically  to  bring  it  about 
that  "men  should  feel  that  it  is  worth  a  blood- tax  to 
belong  to  a  collectivity  superior  in  any  ideal  respect"? 
Why  should  not  school  children  now  begin  definitely  to 
learn  to  take  civic  and  international  relations  and  obli- 
gations to  democracy  so  seriously  that  they  will  "blush 
with  indignant  shame  if  the  community  that  owns 
them  is  vile  in  any  respect  whatsoever" ?  Thus  we  can 
right  now  in  this  stage,  may  it  be  the  final  stage,  of 
necessary  resort  to  pure  force,  build  for  our  children 
"on  the  ruins  of  the  old  morals  of  military  honor,  a 
stable  system  of  morals  of  civic  honor." 

The  modern  democratic  state  is  in  danger,  real  dan- 
ger. Other  states  without  our  democratic  organization 
have  done  some  things  in  a  far  better  way  than  our 


6  HIGH  SCHOOL  ADMINISTRATION 

democracy  has  done  them.  Many  doubters  of  democ- 
racy among  us  have  a  deep  impression  of  our  amor- 
phousness,  our  ignorance,  our  disorder,  and  our  lack  of 
discipline.  Our  whole  democratic  government,  demo- 
cratic social  life,  democratic  tradition,  and  democratic 
education  enrages  the  sense  of  organization  and  ideal  of 
social  order  of  many  a  citizen  of  our  own  country. 
Democracy  in  America  has  not  been  even  clearly  idealized y 
much  less  realized.  As  H.  G.  Wells  has  discerningly 
pointed  out,  it  is  the  method  of  democracy  that  we  need 
to  discover. 

His  purpose  was  to  reason  out  the  possible  methods  of  gov- 
ernment that  would  give  a  stabler,  saner  control  to  the  world. 
.  .  .  He  believed  still  in  democracy,  but  he  was  realizing  more 
and  more  that  democracy  has  yet  to  discover  its  method.  It 
had  to  take  hold  of  the  consciousness  of  men,  it  had  to  equip 
itself  with  still  unformed  organizations.  Endless  years  of  pa- 
tient thinking,  of  experimenting,  of  discussion  lay  before  man- 
kind ere  this  great  idea  could  become  reality,  and  right,  the 
proven  right  thing,  could  rule  the  earth.  ...  It  is  the  newest 
form  of  human  association,  and  we  are  still  but  half  awake  to 
its  needs  and  necessary  conditions.  For  it  is  idle  to  pretend 
that  the  little  city  democracies  of  ancient  times  were  compara- 
ble to  the  great  essays  in  practical  republicanism  that  mankind 
is  making  to-day.  This  age  of  the  democratic  republics  that 
dawn  is  a  new  age.  It  has  not  yet  lasted  for  a  century,  not  for 
a  paltry  hundred  years.  .  .  .  All  new  things  are  weak  things; 
a  rat  can  kill  a  man-child  with  ease. 

Let  us  pledge  ourselves  to  service.  Let  us  set  ourselves  with 
all  our  minds  and  all  our  hearts  to  the  perfecting  and  working 
out  of  the  methods  of  democracy  and  the  ending  forever  of  the 
kings  and  emperors  and  priestcrafts  and  the  bands  of  adven- 
turers, the  traders  and  owners  and  forestallers  who  have  be- 
trayed mankind  into  this  morass  of  hate  and  blood — in  which 
our  sons  are  lost — in  which  we  flounder  still.^ 

*  Quoted  from  "  Mr.  Britling  Sees  It  Through."  (Macmillan  Co., 
1916.) 


EDUCATION  FOR  THE  NEW  DEMOCRACY        7 

Can  we  as  schoolmen  discover  this  democratic  method, 
free  ourselves  from  any  "landed  aristocracy"  of  learning, 
bring  to  earth  an  education  of  every-day  living,  organize 
school  life  effectively  into  those  institutional,  group,  and 
individual  exercises  which  afford  genuine  practice  in  man- 
kind's "practical  republicanism"  ?  Can  America,  now  a 
participator  in  the  finish  fight  which  is  to  decide  the  fate 
of  democracy,  catch  in  her  educational  vision  the  elemental 
principle  of  this  democracy  and  of  its  method  as  it  seems 
to  be  laid  bare  and  naked  to  such  Englishmen  as  H.  G. 
Wells  and  Bertrand  Russell  ?^ 

Some  one  has  recently  said  that  no  nations  are  in  any 
true  sense  so  completely  the  products  of  their  school 
systems  as  are  Germany  and  America.  He  adds  sig- 
nificantly that  the  most  fundamental  aspect  of  the  Ger- 
man educational  philosophy  has  till  now  received  lit- 
tle emphasis.  Do  we  understand  any  better  what  is 
the  most  fundamental  aspect  of  American  education? 
Wanted — a  steering  American  philosophy  of  education, 
clear  enough,  embracing  enough,  gripping  enough,  to 
become  the  unifying  principle  which  will  ultimately 
bring  together  the  various  conflicting  and  rival  forces 
in  American  life. 

Reiterations  of  the  conviction  that  the  philosophy  of 
America  must  be  a  courageous  philosophy  of  the  future 
suggests  that  it  would  be  well  to  have  some  articulation 
of  our  philosophy  of  education,  if  there  is  to  be  any  dis- 
tinctive American  philosophy  of  education  rooted  in 
our  democratic  civihzation.  We  cannot  borrow  foreign 
educational  systems,  neither  can  we  borrow  the  funda- 
mental principles  which  are  to  underlie  our  own  system. 

^  For  powerful  expression  of  the  meaning  of  education  in  a  demo- 
cratic state,  see  B.  Russell's  recent  book,  "Why  Men  Fight"  (Cen- 
tury Co.,  191 7),  and  Mr.  Wells's  novel  referred  to  above. 


8  HIGH  SCHOOL  ADMINISTRATION 

From  the  signs  of  the  times  we  can  be  certain  that  we 
are  going  to  fight  over  educational  questions  much  more 
vigorously  than  ever  in  our  history.  Let  us  hope  that 
we  can  anticipate,  but  entirely  on  the  intellectual  and 
moral  plane,  the  contests  now  going  on  in  Europe. 
There  is  to  be  no  serene  sky  and  smooth  sea  for  Ameri- 
can educators  in  the  next  decades.  We  need  not  try  to 
escape.  The  clashes  in  educational  philosophy  and  in 
conviction  as  to  administrative  adjustments  to  the  need 
of  democracy  must  have  search-lights  fearlessly  thrown 
upon  them. 

Chesterton  reminds  us  that  he  who  most  strenuously 
avoids  a  philosophy  is  most  clearly  expressing  one. 
There  are  philosophies  in  education,  although  they  may 
be  chiefly  the  brands  to  which  Chesterton  refers.  We 
are  of  late,  however,  pretty  surely  in  revolt  at  such 
inarticulate  philosophies  of  the  schools.  May  not  the 
schoolman  find  something  to  his  purpose  in  relating  his 
policy  of  school  administration  definitely  to  some  mod- 
ern system  of  philosophical  thought?  "To  know  the 
chief  rival  attitudes  toward  Hfe,"  to  appreciate  the  rea- 
sons for  them,  and  to  force  one's  self  to  hark  back  to 
fundamental  considerations  when  initiating  school  re- 
form or  justifying  school  procedure  ought  to  be  an 
essential  part  of  the  professional  equipment  of  the  school 
administrator.  Otherwise,  curriculum  construction,  to 
select  a  typical  administrative  function,  must  degenerate 
into  mere  checkerboard  manipulation  of  programmes 
and  schedules,  or  at  most  into  adjustments  to  the  merely 
more  obvious  and  pressing  demands  of  an  economic, 
political,  or  traditional  sort. 

All  educational  organizations  have  in  their  member- 
ship two  types  of  workers.  One  group,  usually  the 
smaller  in  numbers,  tends  eternally  to  force  considera- 


EDUCATION  FOR  THE  NEW  DEMOCRACY       9 

tions  of  policies  and  specific  administrative  measures 
back  into  the  field  of  fundamental  principles.  They 
try  to  deduce  their  conclusions  from  some  thought  sys- 
tem of  theirs  which  for  them  appears  to  have  absolute 
finality.  In  drawing  up  reports,  making  recommenda- 
tions, and  interpreting  or  evaluating  educational  mea- 
sures on  hand,  this  group  tends  to  think  over  much  of 
the  provisos  wliich  must  be  inserted,  of  the  qualifica- 
tions to  be  made,  even  of  the  questionable  outcome  of 
the  very  procedure  to  be  recommended.  It  never  cheer- 
fully acquiesces  in  mere  majority  consensus  of  practical 
judgment.  It  exasperates  the  practical  group,  the  dom- 
inant group  generally.  This  latter  group  soon  tires  of 
the  finer  distinction,  its  members  think  in  terms  of  pro- 
grammes of  action.  They  go  roughshod  over  techni- 
calities with  the  attitude  "our  position  is  in  the  main 
right.  Here  goes !  The  language  doesn't  matter. 
Let's  get  something  done."  Whereas  the  other  group, 
the  philosophically  minded,  feel  so  inspired  with  the 
portentousness  and  the  s^inbolic  suggestiveness  of  the 
project  that  they  endanger  cleanness  of  execution.  These 
more  narrowly  empirically  minded  aim  at  clearness 
and  preciseness  of  executive  detail,  but  care  more  about 
the  next  step  than  about  the  far-off  final  completion 
of  the  enterprise  being  projected.  More  in  touch  with 
the  field  where  the  work  is  to  be  done,  they  take 
the  means  employed  purely  as  an  instrumental  thing, 
as  a  matter-of-fact  next  step.  And  so  the  motion  is 
carried,  the  school  machinery  affected  set  in  motion 
(even  if  much  of  it  is  lost  motion),  and  educational 
history,  such  as  it  is,  is  made.  It  is  easy  to  divorce 
articulate  philosophy  from  formulation  of  school 
policy. 

For  the  most  part,  technical  or  professional  philoso- 


10  HIGH  SCHOOL  ADMINISTRATION 

phers  have  overlooked  the  actual  educative  procedure 
as  naturally  professional  students  of  education  have  as 
a  body  drifted  away  from  philosophy  and  sought  affilia- 
tions rather  with  their  colleagues  in  modern  psychology, 
in  social  science,  in  economics,  and  in  political  science. 
This  estrangement  is  unfortunate.  Most  philosophical 
questions  have  a  humble  but  very  vital  counterpart  in 
educational  thought  and  educational  practice.  Educa- 
tion for  all  of  us  is  a  partially  ideal  performance.  Our 
crude,  inadequate,  inarticulate,  unintentional  philoso- 
phies are  none  the  less  real.  Educators  and  school 
boards  must  act,  and  they  are  lucky,  as  a  rule,  if  there 
is  any  principle  at  all  in  sight  to  direct  their  action. 
Most  professional  philosophers  think  they  cannot  afford 
to  be  disturbed  by  importunate  requests  to  relate  to 
their  fundamental  systems  of  thought  the  amazing  list 
of  practical  school  problems  any  school  administrator 
can  without  a  moment's  notice  reel  off  to  them.  Like- 
wise most  school  administrators  realize  that  they  caimot 
wait  indefinitely  for  the  leisurely  explorations  of  their 
fields  by  luxurious  and  fastidious  ontologically  or  epis- 
temologically  minded  philosophers — wait  till  they  in 
their  unhasting  comfortable  leisure  and  in  their  aca- 
demic atmosphere,  like  an  oracle,  give  them  a  final  an- 
swer. Yet  there  must  be,  despite  Bertrand  Russell  ("Sci- 
entific Method  in  Philosophy"),  some  simple  results 
which  philosophy  has  at  present  achieved  which  bear 
upon  the  very  real  outstanding  problems  of  education. 
It  is,  indeed,  astounding  that  philosophers  have  dared 
keep  themselves  so  detached  from  and  uninterested  in 
educational  practice.  It  is  difficult  to  appreciate  their 
complacency  in  the  presence  of  the  thought  agonies  of 
thousands  of  practical  educators  who  can  only  think 
while  they  work. 


EDUCATION  FOR  THE  NEW  DEMOCRACY   11 

We  educators  of  all  ranks  know  that  our  emphases  are 
often  upon  isolated  aspects  of  the  whole  educational 
ideal.  Our  thoughts  become  tangled  as  we  direct  our 
different  and  uncorrected  partial  school  processes.  We 
do  not  have  time  to  stop  long  enough  to  see  how  the 
partial  thoughts  accompanying  our  partial  and  isolated 
processes  are  or  are  not  elements  of  some  more  under- 
standable and  more  comprehensive  view  of  education  as 
the  motor  co-ordinate  of  the  real  life  of  the  sound  phi- 
losopher's reality.  We  all  know  well  enough  that  there 
is  lack  of  organic  coherence  in  our  totality  of  the  neces- 
sarily scrappy  views  which  we  apologetically  expound  as 
we  seek  to  justify  in  some  confusion  our  practice.  Such 
hasty  attempts  of  ours  to  expound  our  views  in  terms 
of  theoretical  conceptions  of  the  totality  of  the  process 
which  is  going  on  under  our  eyes  and  by  our  hands  has, 
we  know,  missing  links. 

America's  failure  to  make  articulate  a  philosophy  of 
education,  and  her  unrealized  belief  that  somehow 
democracy  in  the  abstract  will  be  the  talisman  that  ulti- 
mately, in  spite  of  our  muddling  along,  will  mysteriously 
work  out  our  individual  and  national  problems  for  us 
has  resulted  in  a  generation  of  Americans  characterized 
by  "incertitude  and  mental  fog,"  undeveloped  capaci- 
ties, and  "tepid  characterlessness." 

Probably  our  country  has  seen  no  generation  so  miserably 
educated  as  we  have  been.  .  .  .  There  has  come  for  our  town- 
bred  generation  a  complete  divorce  of  hand  and  mind.  .  .  . 

That  energy  which  might  have  gone  into  constructing  things, 
learning  from  science  how  our  modern  world  went  round,  get- 
ting acquainted  with  our  community,  where  we  got  best  "pre- 
pared for  Hfe  as  adults  by  experiencing  in  childhood  what  had 
meaning  to  us  as  children" — most  of  this  energy  went  for  most 
of  us  in  idle  play,  overfed  romanticism,  obsessing  sex-fantasy, 
or  a  quick  dive  into  "blind-alley"  occupations. 


12  HIGH   SCHOOL  ADMINISTRATION 

Those  of  us  without  any  startling  capabilities  or  vices  settled 
down  to  a  routine,  closed  to  all  except  local  interests  and  the 
humdrum  facts  of  daily  life.  The  majority  of  young  men  were 
swallowed  up  in  specialized  office  or  factory  work,  which  made 
no  drafts  whatever  on  their  interest  or  initiative,  or  against 
which  they  could  only  chafe  impotently.  The  young  women 
went  into  a  sort  of  specialized  idleness,  with  obsessions  of  dress 
and  restless  search  after  diversion.  Those  of  us  with  ambition 
and  some  kind  of  definite  flair,  destitute  of  training  and  cursed 
with  absurdly  inadequate  notions  of  the  complicated  society  in 
which  we  lived,  could  only  flounder.  The  best  enthusiasms  got 
drained  off  into  the  shadowy  ways  of  social  idealism  and  "ser- 
vice" which  too  often  ended  in  disillusionments  and  cynicism. 
Nowhere  any  tools  we  could  grip;  nowhere  any  knowledge  for 
constructing  them  or  skill  for  reworking  what  there  was.  Our 
education  had  neither  given  us  the  training  with  whose  aid  we 
could  escape  the  rut,  nor  any  sweet  alleviations  of  tastes  and 
culture  to  make  endurable  our  ineffectiveness.  One  wonders  if 
there  was  ever  a  generation  more  thoroughly  dissatisfied  with 
itself,  and  from  whom  society  had  more  cunningly  removed  the 
opportunities  for  self-expression  and  the  chance  to  get  intellec- 
tually and  manually  at  grips  with  things.  American  industry, 
politics,  letters,  already  feel  the  blight  of  this  incapacity.  Origi- 
nality, picturesqueness,  raciness  of  expression  and  attitude,  dar- 
ingness  of  social  invention  and  experimentation,  fine  flair  of 
decorative  art,  and  even  robustness  of  dogma,  seem  all  to  have 
been  washed  out  of  this  colorless  and  uninteresting  generation. 
.  .  .  Where  youth  finds  its  niche  or  gets  its  opportunity,  it 
responds  eagerly  and  capably.  The  tragedy  has  been  that  a 
repressive  "education"  which  callously  ignored  the  demands  of 
life  has  done  its  best,  in  ways  which  we  are  beginning  to  see 
as  almost  malevolently  ingenious,  to  separate  youth  from  its 
opportunity.  .  .  .  For  when  education  becomes  the  child's 
learning  to  do  things  instead  of  the  teacher's  teaching  it  sub- 
ject-matter, the  labor  is  immensely  relieved.  The  teacher  as 
helper  and  observer  has  a  wholly  new  outlook.  The  old  peda- 
gogy becomes  meaningless.  Teaching  becomes  the  life-blood 
of  society.^ 

1  Excerpts  from  Randolph  S.  Bourne's  review  of  Dewey's  "Schools 
of  To-Morrow,"  in  The  New  Republic,  June  26,  191 5. 


EDUCATION  FOR  THE  NEW  DEMOCRACY   13 

Such  an  "educational  lament"  as  this  must  needs 
make  one  pause  before  determining  which  one  of  the 
"chief  rival  attitudes  toward  life"  shall  be  embraced: 
on  the  one  hand,  a  "repressive  education  which  callously 
ignores  the  demands  of  life,"  but  which  beckons  allur- 
ingly to  the  schoolman  and  promises  a  perfected  sys- 
tem, complete  in  all  details,  smoothed  out,  refined,  per- 
manent, applicable  at  all  times,  in  all  situations,  to  all 
individuals,  a  system  which  admirably  lends  itself  to 
formula  and  device,  and  which  allows  as  a  reward  for 
successful  effort  the  final  satisfaction  of  an  irrevocable 
verdict  of  one  more  established  eternal  truth;  on  the 
other  hand,  an  experimental  education,  with  its  infi- 
nitely interesting  but  discouragingly  endless  possibilities 
of  revision  and  change,  modification  and  adaptability,  a 
progranmie  which  frankly  acknowledges  the  unescapable 
fact  that  permanence  is  impotent,  but  that  the  ques- 
tioning spirit  is  the  ultimately  fruitful  one. 

Is  it  not  better,  perhaps,  to  frankly  assume  the  role 
of  an  experimentalist  in  education,  seeking  not  to  find  the 
eternally  one-right-way  of  solving  our  many  perplexing 
problems,  nor  to  catalogue,  codify,  tabulate,  and  per- 
manently label  every  principle,  process,  method,  or  de- 
vice found  to  have  been  effective  in  some  particular 
situation  at  some  particular  time?  To  label  anything 
truth  is,  indeed,  to  dispose  of  it  in  a  highly  satisfactory 
manner.  The  more  truths  discovered  and  catalogued 
the  neater,  the  more  compact,  the  more  satisfactory  is 
the  result,  and  an  educational  system  built  on  these 
foundations  holds  out  tempting  possibilities  to  those 
who  temperamentally  care  for  scientific  exactness,  nice- 
ness  of  detail,  and  finality.  But  experimental  science 
must  remember  change.  Even  though  one  chooses  to 
ignore  the  fact,  change  is  the  basic  factor  in  social  phe- 


14  HIGH   SCHOOL  ADMINISTRATION 

nomena,  and  must  be  considered  in  any  effective  pro- 
gramme. Surely  educational  science,  more  even  than 
any  of  the  other  social  sciences,  must  utilize  this  funda- 
mental social  principle,  and  no  degree  of  intellectual 
lassitude  will  excuse  the  educator  for  his  unwillingness 
to  face  the  fact  of  social  change  or  to  undertake  the  pos- 
sibly disagreeable  task  of  attempting  to  control  and 
direct  it.  In  experimental  education  the  serious  work 
is  just  this:  To  observe  the  many  changes  going  on  in 
the  social  body;  to  direct  and  control  these  through  the 
instrumentality  of  the  school;  to  forecast  and  interpret 
new  changes,  and  to  anticipate  possible  results  with 
possible  methods  of  control;  to  invent  new  social  ma- 
chinery devised  to  secure  for  society  certain  values 
considered  fundamentally  necessary  in  a  democratic 
state. 

Experimental  education,  then,  must  be  defined  in 
terms  of  change.  This  means  that  there  is  no  perma- 
nent solution  for  any  school  problem,  but  each  one  must 
be  constantly  redefined  in  the  light  of  new  evidence. 
It  means  that  the  educator  must  stand  ready  to  open 
and  reopen  each  question,  follow  where  the  argument 
leads,  investigate,  study,  and  experiment,  and  then 
from  the  obtained  results  evaluate,  criticise,  and  formu- 
late conclusions,  which  may  serve  only  as  a  tentative 
basis  for  more  experimentation.  For  this  reason  the 
very  excellencies  of  an  experimental  programme  present 
to  our  ambitious  worker  the  most  irritating  perplexities. 
Nothing  is  ever  completed.  No  question  may  be  closed 
up.  His  work  is  never  done.  Results  obtained  to-day 
are  invalid  to-morrow.  Finality  is  an  unused  word. 
But,  the  question  may  arise,  will  not  such  a  programme 
put  too  great  a  premium  on  mere  innovation  ?  Will  not 
a  school  system  founded  on  this  basis  lack  stability  and 


EDUCATION  FOR  THE  NEW  DEMOCRACY   15 

order  ?  The  answer  would  seem  to  be  that  gruelling  and 
tantalizing  confusion  is  the  price  we  always  pay  for  sub- 
sequent clarity.  Surely  a  conception  of  education  as  an 
institution  which  projects  new  ideas  as  well  as  testing 
them  out  and  discarding  or  retaining  them  according  to 
the  results  of  the  test  is  better  than  one  which  merely 
puts  ready-made  ideas  into  execution.  And  so  the  key- 
note to  an  experimental  programme  must  be  flexibility, 
adaptability,  elasticity,  and  only  as  school  practice  can 
make  these  words  alive  with  meaning  will  mistakes  be- 
come positive  elements  in  improving  conditions,  and  in- 
telligent means  of  directing  reconstruction. 

For  this  reason  the  reorganization  movement  is  prob- 
ably the  most  complete  exemplification. 

The  problem  of  American  education  to-day  is  to 
transform  a  formalized  institution  into  life.  To  get  an 
adequate  conception  of  the  new  democracy  it  is  neces- 
sary to  get  a  new  conception  of  the  psychology  of  the 
educative  processes,  and  to  realize  that  they  are  expres- 
sive processes,  that  knowledge  is  a  real  process,  a  real 
method  of  expressing,  and  hence  that  all  school  exercises, 
as  reciting,  studying,  student  activities,  auditorium 
performances,  shop  training,  laboratory  technic,  proj- 
ects, socialized  class  meetings,  and  other  new  and  more 
intimate  sorts  of  exercises,  with  the  supposedly  aca- 
demicized  humanity  subjects,  must  smack  of  realness. 
The  new  democratic  state  may  only  be  realized  through 
a  rejuvenated  public-school  system,  a  rejuvenation  of 
our  entire  educational  reorganization  and  administra- 
tion. The  reorganization  movement,  as  such,  is  an 
attempt  to  think  educational  values  in  terms  of  democ- 
racy that  has  been  redefined,  and  that  must  still  be 
redefined  many  times  before  arriving  at  a  satisfactory 
solution  of  our  social  problems.     For  this  reason  the 


16  HIGH  SCHOOL  ADMINISTRATION 

reorganization  movement,  and  more  particularly  the 
junior  high  school  movement,  implying,  as  it  does,  the 
reorganization  of  the  three  critical  intermediate  grades, 
is  the  most  complete  exemplification  of  an  experimental 
philosophy. 

The  junior  high  school  movement  is  essentially  an 
American  movement,  and  should  be  defined  in  terms  of 
its  profound  meaning.  It  should  suggest  that  our  ideal 
of  universal  education  has  not  been  realized,  and  that 
a  new  organization  is  needed  which  will  eliminate  the 
undemocratic  selective  principle  now  operating  which 
tends  to  break  up  our  body  politic  into  social  classes. 
It  should  suggest  an  attempt  to  put  into  operation  a 
conception  of  secondary  education  new  in  the  history  of 
the  entire  world,  where  the  class  distinction  between 
elementary  and  secondary  education  may  be  entirely 
wiped  out.  It  should  suggest  an  attempt  to  take  cog- 
nizance of  the  many  changes  going  on  in  the  social 
body,  to  direct  and  control  these  through  the  instrumen- 
talities of  the  schools,  to  forecast  and  to  interpret  new 
changes,  and  to  anticipate  possible  results  with  possible 
methods  of  control.  The  junior  high  school  movement 
should  imply  a  rejection  of  outgrown  methods  and  pre- 
arranged subject-matter,  and  accept  as  the  very  founda- 
tion-stone of  educational  method  the  principle  of  utiliz- 
ing to  the  full  the  naturally  inherited  possibilities  of  the 
learning  processes  rooted  in  the  instinctive  and  the  im- 
pulsive attitudes  and  activities  of  children  and  youth; 
and  utilizing  these  as  far  as  is  practicable,  reproduce  as 
nearly  as  possible  on  the  learner's  plane  the  typical  con- 
structive social  life  of  the  outside  world.  Finally,  the 
junior  high  school  is  a  concrete  attempt  to  invent  new 
social  machinery  devised  to  secure  for  society  that  most 
necessary  value  in  a  democratic  state — ^the  development 


EDUCATION  FOR  THE  NEW  DEMOCRACY   17 

of  personality.  Intellectual  growth,  habit  formation, 
physical,  social,  and  moral  development,  aesthetic  appre- 
ciation and  vocational  preparedness  are  all  factors  in 
personality,  and  are  all  dependent  on  the  school  for 
systematic  development.  Schoolmen  must  grasp  the 
junior  high  school  idea,  not  as  a  period  definitely  marked 
off  for  covering  ground  in  clearly  differentiated  fields  of 
natural  science,  social  science,  language,  mechanic  arts, 
and  domestic  economy,  but  rather  as  the  three-year  sec- 
tion of  our  public-school  system,  which,  with  its  newly 
developed  types  of  courses,  methods  of  teaching,  policy 
of  school  management,  and  intensive  study  of  the  indi- 
vidualities of  pupils,  seeks  to  direct  them  in  finding 
themselves  by  exploiting  their  various  possible  powers 
or  aptitudes — leaving  to  the  senior  high  school  the  func- 
tion of  specially  preparing  them  for  a  definite  pursuit  or 
for  definite  continuation  of  education  in  higher  institu- 
tions. Is  not  the  junior  high  school  idea  just  our  at 
present  clumsy  and  lumbering  but  unmistakable  attempt 
to  shunt  our  public  educational  machinery  during  this 
particular  three-year  period  into  the  field  of  diagnosing 
and  exploiting,  by  means  of  more  various  kinds  of  train- 
ings, the  individualities  of  pupils? 

To  get  the  real  significance  of  the  junior  high  school 
movement  as  an  exemplification  of  experimental  educa- 
tional philosophy,  we  must  recognize  that  what  we  have 
been  wont  to  think  of  as  inevitably  educational  machinery 
must  not  be  machinery,  but  must  rather  be  that  better 
conceived  school  organism  which  is  capable  of  such 
administratively  flexible  adjustments  that  it,  too,  just 
as  classroom  teaching,  can  express  a  fundamental  phi- 
losophy of  education.  There  seems  to  be  a  growing 
conviction  that  there  must  be  a  philosophy  of  school 
administration  itself,  as  well  as  of  so-called  educational 


18  HIGH  SCHOOL  ADMINISTRATION 

values,  which  from  year  to  year  may  show  a  steady  de- 
velopment of  administrative  doctrine. 

There  is  an  unfortunate  distinction  between  admin- 
istration and  teaching.  It  is  based  upon  the  view  that 
administration  is  mechanical,  a  sort  of  routine  use  of 
devices,  an  employment  of  practical,  temporary  ad- 
justments, and  a  consumption  of  time  in  a  clerical  occu- 
pation and  in  more  or  less  futile,  or  only  temporarily 
necessary,  pupil,  teacher,  and  parent  conferences,  while 
real  teaching  is  both  more  spiritual  and  more  truly  edu- 
cational. I  think  this  is  unfortunate.  There  is  a  real 
technic  in  organizing  and  managing  student  activities, 
in  creating  an  esprit  de  corps  in  the  school  or  class 
or  classroom  group,  in  athletics  or  otherwise,  in  plan- 
ning and  carrying  through  the  year  a  series  of  teachers' 
meetings,  in  conceiving  and  putting  successfully  into 
operation  a  system  of  supervised  study,  in  making  a 
system  of  educational  guidance  a  real  part  of  the  school's 
every  day  work,  or  in  making  athletics  democratic, 
moral,  and  educational.  There  are  spiritual  and  techni- 
cal sides  to  administration  as  well  as  to  teaching.  Super- 
vised study,  for  example,  means  something  much  more 
fundamental  than  some  arbitrary  lengthening  of  the 
class  period,  and  mechanical  division  of  its  activities 
into  study  and  recitation.  It  means  a  new  kind  of  edu- 
cative process  and  a  new  ideal  of  mental  economy  and 
of  co-operative  intellectual  work  through  class  or  other 
group  organization.  Educational  guidance  means  more 
than  mere  psychological  diagnosis  or  vocational  infor- 
mation and  placement.  It  means  the  more  fundamen- 
tal effort  to  establish  in  pupils  proper  internal  rather 
than  externally  imposed  and  superficial  motives  for 
school  work,  and  to  administer  the  whole  curriculum  in 
this  more  effective  way. 


EDUCATION  FOR  THE  NEW  DEMOCRACY   19 

Library  administration  means  not  only  books  and 
facilities,  but  it  means  the  organization  of  the  whole 
school  with  definite  reference  to  the  library  centre;  it 
means  the  making  of  discriminating  readers  out  of  the 
whole  school  membership  through  daily  exercises  which 
are  as  natural  a  participation  in  the  life  of  the  school 
and  the  work  in  school  subjects  as  the  recitation  itself. 
School  management  in  this  higher  and  more  spiritual 
sense  implies  technic,  implies  minimal  standards  of  ad- 
ministration, implies  peculiar  professional  preparation 
and  personal  fitness  of  the  administrators,  impHes  a  high 
degree  of  co-operation  of  all  the  forces  of  the  school. 

One  of  the  most  important  of  these  administrative 
problems  of  the  junior  high  school,  and  probably  the 
most  difficult  for  educators,  is  that  of  curriculum  differ- 
entiation. Plato  has  set  us  a  model  of  curriculum  think- 
ing still  unsurpassed  in  many  respects.  The  lack  of  dif- 
ferentiation for  different  groups  who  are  to  be  educated 
marks  the  element  of  weakness  in  his  ideal  scheme,  so 
far  as  our  modern  high  school  instructional  and  training 
offerings  are  concerned.  Herbert  Spencer,  in  his  first 
essay  on  education,  set  another  pace  for  curriculum- 
makers,  and  gave  a  better  illustration  of  the  definite 
steps  necessary  in  actually  making  specific  curriculums. 
His  doctrine  of  the  relative  values  of  the  different  edu- 
cational ends  to  be  attained  by  curriculums,  and  his 
further  discussion  of  the  hierarchy  of  subjects  of  instruc- 
tion to  be  employed  in  gaining  the  ends  sought,  offers 
still  a  model  of  method  for  the  ambitious  curriculum- 
builders  of  to-day.  Spencer's  greatest  contribution  here 
is  that  he  named  our  problem  for  us.  He  did  his  work 
so  thoroughly  that  we  are  able  to  disagree  clearly  with 
him.  In  the  very  statement  of  our  dissent  Spencer 
forces  us  to  fundamental  considerations.     He  builds  for 


20  HIGH   SCHOOL  ADMINISTRATION 

us  one  curriculum,  builds  it  so  well,  and  knits  each  part 
to  the  other  so  plausibly,  and  with  so  much  faith  out- 
lines the  ramifications  of  educational  effects  we  are  to 
expect,  that  he  almost  persuades  us,  not  only  that  here 
is  a  good  curriculum,  but  that  it  is  the  only  necessary 
one — a  curriculum  of  science !  Curriculum-makers,  like 
other  people,  have  always  sought  the  philosopher's 
stone,  the  single  panacea.  Spencer  was,  as  old  Cato, 
what  Thomas  Dixon  calls  one  of  the  world's  "One-eyed 
Fools."  First,  he  thought  that  giving  all  subjects  a 
scientific  flavor  would  solve  the  problem  of  curriculum 
needs.  He  did  not  realize  how  complex  and  difficult  of 
application  his  conception  of  science  was  to  prove  to  be. 
Second,  as  Royce  remarks,  he  thought  naively  that  the 
world  should  ultimately  be  made  up  of  "little  Herberts," 
men,  as  William  James  says  of  Spencer,  "of  remorseless 
explicitness,"  "of  pedantic  rectitude,"  "with  curious 
dryness  and  literalness  of  judgment,"  "a  lukewarm 
equable  temperament,  narrowness  of  sympathy  and  pas- 
sion, fondness  for  mechanical  forms  of  thought,  and  im- 
perfect receptivity."  Spencer  planned  for  all  to  be 
trained  for  special  professional  capacities  in  the  appli- 
cation of  scientific  laws  generally.  He  saw  no  difference 
between  the  great  popular  need  and  ability  to  under- 
stand and  profit  by  knowledge  of  science  and  the  strictly 
limited  needs  of  the  professional  scientists  themselves. 
We  do  not  admit  to-day  that  what  is  essential  to  the 
specialist  must  be  fed  in  painful  broken  doses  to  the 
race,  that  our  public  education  in  sanitation  is  identical 
with  that  of  the  plumber's,  or  that  our  family  knowledge 
of  antiseptics  must  be  acquired,  if  at  all,  in  the  same 
way  that  a  surgeon  prepares  himself  for  the  practice  of 
his  profession. 

Again,  in  modern  curriculum-making  we  cannot  rely 


EDUCATION  FOR  THE  NEW  DEMOCRACY  21 

on  the  other  basis  proposed  seriously  by  Spencer, 
namely,  as  Yocum  has  noted,  that  what  has  proved 
effective  in  the  past  survivals  of  the  race  is  now  still  a 
sufficient  basis.  On  the  other  hand,  here  again  we  must 
note  that  we  have  a  heterogeneous  pupil  body  of  one 
and  one-half  million  adolescent  boys  and  girls,  repre- 
senting majiy-sided  social  appeals,  national,  state,  mu- 
nicipal, rural;  appeals,  also,  of  every  social  grade  and 
of  a  bewildering  variety  of  vocational  requirements. 
These  appeals  must  be  analyzed  for  our  different  actual 
pupil  groups,  classified,  evaluated  as  leading  to  "ener- 
gizing" or  "non-energizing"  vocations;  and  for  Spen- 
cer's academic  basis  we  must  substitute  the  principle  of 
designing  courses  and  curriculums  according  to  whether 
they  have  or  do  not  have  systematized  information  and 
definite  trainings.  We  must  know,  in  a  given  case, 
which  of  these  knowledges  and  trainings  are  requisite  for 
and  common  to  the  life  demands  of  the  majority  in  each 
of  the  groups  into  which  we  can,  for  this  curriculum 
purpose,  break  up  our  particular  bodies  of  high  school 
pupils.  Spencer  did  not  anticipate  and  many  modern 
writers  do  not  see  this  era  of  curriculum  differentiation 
that  is  upon  us.  Many  do,  however,  and  it  is  to  these 
we  must  look  for  tentative  solutions  and  methods  of 
attack. 

There  are  those  who  opfMjse  all  variations  from  a  type 
design  in  curriculum  construction  for  all  parts  of  the 
country  and  for  all  states  alike,  and  oppose  all  modifica- 
tions of  school  subjects,  as  these  modifications  are  to  be 
determined  by  the  curriculum  settings  in  which  they 
are  placed.  The  radical  wing  of  the  other  party  rele- 
gate these  to  the  outer  darkness.  They  are  in  the  dark 
ages  of  modern  educational  intellectualism  and  aca- 
demicism. 


22  HIGH  SCHOOL  ADMINISTRATION 

Again,  there  are  those  who  wish  to  see  carefully  de- 
vised lines  of  training  for  distinguishable  pupil  groups 
wherever  the  basis  for  this  distinguishable  sort  of  cur- 
riculum treatment  is  clearly  derived  from  adequate  psy- 
chological analysis  of  pupiVs  interests  and  aptitudes  and 
supported  further  by  vocational  analysis  of  local  and  wider 
occupational  possibilities.  These  are  in  the  van  of  the 
modern  movement  for  a  more  flexible  programme  of 
education  for  the  beginning  adolescents  of  all  types. 
They  are  par  excellence  experimentalists. 

Curriculum  differentiation  implies  the  organization  of 
courses  into  distinctive  curriculums  definitely  planned 
with  reference,  not  to  each  individual's  personal  needs 
only,  but  with  reference  largely  to  the  different  educa- 
tional requirements  of  special  groups  of  pupils,  curricu- 
lums based  upon  social  as  well  as  upon  psychological 
considerations.  This  system  emphasizes  chiefly  the 
election  of  curriculums  only,  allowing  some  leeway 
within  each  curriculum,  but  allowing  for  the  time  little 
freedom  for  individual  choice  of  studies  belonging  to 
other  curriculums  than  the  one  to  which  the  pupil  has 
been  assigned. 

Some  who  earnestly  deplore  the  movement  to  differ- 
entiate curriculums  for  the  seventh,  eighth,  and  ninth 
year  pupils  have  evidently  vividly  in  mind  a  process  of 
pigeonholing  arbitrarily  selected  groups  of  helpless  chil- 
dren and  contriving  for  them  a  sort  of  curriculum  in 
which  every  one  of  the  time-honored  and,  of  course,  in 
many  cases,  experience-tested  school  subjects  are  un- 
recognizably altered.  This  is,  indeed,  a  possible  type 
of  differentiation,  but  an  extremely  unlikely  eventuation 
of  the  on- the- whole  wholesome  movement  to  vary  in 
less  radical  ways  schemes  of  training  for  particular 
groups,  such  as  girls  and  boys,  prevocational  and  aca- 


EDUCATION  FOR  THE  NEW  DEMOCRACY  23 

demic-minded,  slow-moving  and  fast-moving.  One  can 
have  genuinely  differentiated  curriculums  (two  or  more) 
and  still  have  many  of  the  same  courses  functioning  in 
each  of  the  curriculums  administered  by  the  school  sys- 
tem. It  is  very  true  that  many  of  the  courses  will  tend 
to  become  modified  because  of  their  curriculum  settings; 
but  this  again  in  turn  in  no  way  precludes  nor  lessens 
the  probability  of  their  preserving  their  distinctive  edu- 
cational values  as  subjects.  This  kind  of  modification 
of  courses  is  in  principle  not  different  from  the  method 
now  of  all  good  teachers  in  varying  illustrations,  exam- 
ples, theme  assignments,  history  topics,  and  special  sup- 
plementary elementary  science  problems,  for  the  differ- 
ent mental  constitutions  of  the  members  of  classes.  It 
is  merely,  from  this  point  of  view,  pushing  farther 
through  administrative  technic  the  school's  adaptation 
to  the  problem  of  individual  diferences.  If  our  psy- 
chological basis  for  differentiated  treatments  for  groups 
of  pupils  is  one  guide,  and  if  the,  also  unescapable,  social 
and  industrial  needs  of  these  same  groups  figure  too  in 
our  school  plans  of  administering  instruction,  we  may 
reasonably  hope  in  time  so  to  harmonize  these  two  pro- 
found and  sometimes  conflicting  principles  as  to  evolve 
from  them  both  a  reliable  guide  for  immediate  curricu- 
lum-making. 

Curriculum  differentiation,  starting  after  the  rear- 
ranged and  systematically  reorganized  and  condensed 
six  years  of  elementary  education,  does  not  mean  the 
shifting  of  the  educational  centre  of  gravity  from  the 
interest  of  a  high  collectivism  to  the  individual  self  and 
his  immediate  welfare,  as  some  think.  It  means,  rather, 
that  a  socialized  conception  of  all  education  is  to  prevail 
during  the  twentieth  century;  and  that,  even  though 
necessarily  different  curriculums  may  contain  different 


24  HIGH  SCHOOL  ADMINISTRATION 

sets  of  ideas,  different  items  of  information,  different 
kinds  of  exercises  for  perception  and  memory  and  judg- 
ment and  reasoning,  and  different  actual  skills  and 
physical  habits,  still  the  spirit  and  character  of  it  all  can 
well  be  social,  thereby  in  its  double  contribution  effect- 
ing freedom,  elasticity,  and  variety  among  individuals 
and,  for  this  very  conditioning  fact,  a  consequently  richer 
democracy  of  real  self-directing  individuals  who  have  had 
meted  out  to  them  by  a  public  educational  system  the 
sort  of  education  which  the  industrial  and  social  state 
made  necessary  from  the  very  fact  of  the  humanity  of 
man  himself. 

If  education,  however,  is  to  become  a  real  method  of 
democracy,  it  must  contribute  more  than  the  purely  in- 
tellectual and  social  aspects  of  personality.  An  educa- 
tional poUcy  not  permeated  by  the  moral  motive  is 
likely  to  be  vicious,  and  there  is  need  for  a  more  delicate 
administration  by  which  the  home  and  the  school  can 
better  co-operate  in  this  moralizing  function.  National, 
even  human,  society  is  itself  still  in  the  process  of  moral 
evolution,  and  this  common  pragmatic  conviction  of  the 
evolution  of  the  moral  law  must  give  the  clew  as  to  the 
moral  measures  the  schools  of  any  nation  shall  adopt. 
Thus  only  by  building  upon  the  child's  endowment, 
racial,  social,  and  individual,  of  instincts  and  symbolic 
cravings  for  objective  ideals,  and  by  idealizing  the  state 
as  par  excellence  a  moral  institution,  may  the  school  find 
its  fuller  social  justification. 

As  Keatinge  says:  "If  the  ideas  and  ideals  that  are 
put  forward  by  an  educational  system  are  purely  tradi- 
tional and  arbitrary,  and  very  remote  from  the  needs  of 
every-day  life,  or  if  the  attitude  of  mind  and  modes  of 
thinking  inculcated  are  at  variance  with  the  crude  meth- 
ods by  which  men  feel  their  way  toward  a  comfortable 


EDUCATION  FOR  THE  NEW  DEMOCRACY  25 

income  and  matrimony;  if  the  moral  code  which  is 
taught  is  too  far  in  advance  of  that  in  actual  use,  even 
though  on  abstract  grounds  it  may  be  desirable,  in  other 
words,  if  it  stands  in  little  relation  with  the  current 
practice,  it  will  be  a  drawback  to  the  individual  to  have 
come  under  the  influence  of  the  educational  system,  and 
biological  forces  will  inevitably  produce  immunity  to 
this  knowledge  or  this  attitude  of  mind  or  of  feeling."  * 
Characteristic  pragmatic  philosophy ! 

Regarding  the  education  of  feelings  as  an  important 
issue,  the  dangers  in  the  incorrect  education  of  the  intel- 
lect are  conceit,  scepticism,  cynicism,  intolerance,  and 
undue  extension  of  the  critical  spirit,  all  to  be  found 
everywhere  among  the  educated,  and  there  is  only  one 
antidote  for  them.  The  dangers  in  the  wrong  educa- 
tion or  in  the  neglect  of  the  feelings  are  even  more  alarm- 
ing; languorous  sensuousness  and  tumultuous  explo- 
siveness,  giants  of  the  tribe;  and  here  again  there  is  an 
antidote,  the  proper  education  of  them.  "Unless  moral 
training  and  the  sense  of  social  responsibility  bulk  as  big 
as  aesthetic  training,  unless,  indeed,  the  two  are  merged 
into  one,  the  training  of  the  feelings  on  which  so  much 
stress  has  been  laid  may  be  disastrous."  There  exists  in 
society  a  large  amount  of  perverted  feeling.  Most  of  our 
communities  have  forgotten  the  dead  knowledge  acquired 
in  school-days,  and  have  no  means  of  occupying  them- 
selves creatively  in  the  leisure  hours.  "It  will  be  for  the 
school  of  the  future  to  lay  at  least  as  much  stress  on  the 
arts  of  self-expression  as  on  the  acquisition  of  knowledge, 
and  to  insure  that  aesthetic  feeling  shall  pervade  the 
community."^ 

The  very  good  reason  why  we  do  not  specifically  pro- 

^  M.  W.  Keatinge,  "Studies  in  Education."  (A.  C.  Black,  Ltd., 
London.) 


26  HIGH  SCHOOL  ADMINISTRATION 

vide  for  the  education  of  human  feelings  and  emotions  in 
our  general  scheme  of  education  is  that  we  have  no  suffi- 
cient understanding  of  how  to  accomplish  this  desirable 
training.  Can  we  measure,  reduce  to  scale,  evaluate, 
and  direct  by  rule  the  more  intimate  and  more  critically 
important  factors  in  education,  such  as,  for  example,  our 
emotions,  our  wills,  our  characters,  our  sentiments  and 
ideals,  our  convictions  and  behefs,  our  temperaments 
and  personaUties  ?  If  not,  can  we  afford  to  neglect  these 
factors  in  our  school  procedure?  If  we  can  educate 
them,  what  will  be  the  effect  of  such  educational  treat- 
ment? 

Theories  differ  as  to  the  r61e  of  the  educator  in  the 
realm  of  feelings  and  emotions.  Some  feel  that  we  shall 
cheapen  and  deaden  intimate  personal  feelings  by  giving 
them  school  attention.  Others  think  the  intellect  can 
be  educated,  but  that  feelings  are  by  nature  not  amenable 
to  training.  Others  think  it  would  be  well  to  have  feeling 
sensibilities  and  emotional  discernment  trained,  but  that 
the  school  as  an  institution  cannot  ever  hope  to  do  this. 
Others  again  think  this  is  a  programme  of  the  future, 
but  that  at  present  not  enough  is  known  to  make  possible 
a  pedagogy  of  feeling. 

It  is  clear  that  we  can  in  ourselves  and  in  our  pupils' 
mental  lives  distinguish  roughly  what  we  may  call  two 
worlds.  One  is  a  world  of  facts  with  which  we  can  drill 
our  students  and  exercise  their  memories  and  logical 
powers  in  different  directions.  Here  our  pupils  will  be 
busy  under  our  direction  in  more  or  less  impersonally  de- 
scribing, explaining,  and  reorganizing  the  stress  of  infor- 
mation. The  other  world  is  the  world  of  values,  where 
our  feelings  and  emotions,  our  impulses  and  ideals  are 
exercised.  In  one  world  facts  rightly  reign  supreme. 
In  the  other,  personalities  are  the  centre  of  interest. 


EDUCATION  FOR  THE  NEW  DEMOCRACY  27 

The  teacher,  if  he  be  an  artist,  with  delicate  direction 
here  and  a  sense  of  mastery,  can  make  moments  burn 
with  meaning  and  become  eternal.  The  cultivation  of 
love  of  truth,  love  of  right,  and  appreciation  of  the  beau- 
tiful, is  the  choicest  task  of  the  educator.  He  must 
know  more  intimately  and  appreciate  more  critically  his 
charges  who  are  going  through  vital  physical,  mental, 
and  spiritual  changes  which  make  or  mar,  tone  up  or 
discolor,  sweeten  or  embitter  their  whole  after-lives. 
The  uncontrollable,  inarticulate,  but  ceaselessly  active 
undercurrent  of  passion  and  latent  power  is  there — 
critical  for  the  educator.  Not  only  sanity,  kindliness, 
and  justice,  but  studied  insight  into  the  meaning  and 
critical  importance  of  these  vital  changes  must  be  at 
command.  One  cannot  any  longer  retain  self-respect 
nor  social,  if  he  accepts  his  teaching  work  as  merely  the 
imparting  of  information.  He  is  more  and  more  in- 
sistently challenged  to  make  men  and  women,  and  to 
study  continually  the  intricate  complexities  of  those 
processes  he,  by  virtue  of  his  position,  must  direct  and 
define. 

It  may  be  that  in  time  the  science  of  education  may 
investigate  this  problem  of  educating  the  emotions.  At 
present  high  school  teachers,  dealing  with  adolescents 
overwhelmed  with  the  very  richness  and  abundance  of 
their  own  emotional  experiences,  cannot  afford  to  neg- 
lect the  responsibility  of  directing  this  phase  of  the  Hfe 
of  their  pupils.  Obviously  some  subjects  lend  them- 
selves more  clearly  to  this  emotional  demand  than 
others.  This  should  be  clearly  understood  by  all  high 
school  principals  and  teachers.  If  it  were  so  understood 
we  should  no  longer  see  English  literature  and  geome- 
try, history  and  physics  taught  by  practically  the  same 
methods,  and  no  longer  would  all  our  examination  ques- 


28  HIGH  SCHOOL  ADMINISTRATION 

tions  apparently  be  bent  on  testing  the  same  sort  of 
restricted  range  of  mental  powers. 

Somehow  modern  scientific  and  industrial  realism  in 
education,  though  succeeding  in  keeping  alive  our  human 
passion  for  experimental  inquiry  and  investigation  of  all 
aspects  of  nature  and  in  satisfying  our  instinctive  de- 
mand for  participation  in  constructive  workmanship  and 
for  conscious  industrial  service  and  practice,  even  in 
organization  and  leadership,  still  lacks  a  vital  humanis- 
tic factor.  There  is  one  screw  loose  in  our  modernly 
educated  boys  and  girls.  Surely  nature  and  the  occu- 
pations of  man,  through  science  and  rightly  conceived 
vocational  education,  must  be  two  of  our  instruments  of 
democratic  culture.  As  surely,  however,  must  language 
in  the  form  of  literature,  art,  and  music  be  basal  to  any 
superstructure  designed  for  our  modern  public-school 
system. 

What  we  may  call  the  new  era  in  education  means 
just  this — that  we  are  becoming  concerned  with  the 
great  variety  of  mental  capacities  and  with  the  greater 
varieties  of  combinations  of  these  traits  found  in  our 
students.  In  classroom  work  and  also  in  extra  classroom 
activities  of  the  school  we  are  rapidly  working  out  a 
high  school  system  of  administration  and  teaching  which 
is  reaching  and  directing  the  individualities  of  boys  and 
girls,  their  emotions  as  well  as  their  intellects.  The 
elective  system,  systems  of  high  school  advisers,  voca- 
tional guidance,  avocational  guidance,  moral  guidance, 
educational  guidance,  all  such  new  and  significant  terms 
in  high  school  administration  but  indicate  how  near  this 
vital  problem  we  are  coming. 

"If  at  the  end  of  an  elaborate  course  of  education  our 
youths  and  maidens,  as  is  usually  the  case,  are  unable 
to  resist  the  appeal  that  is  made  to  their  worst  impulses 


EDUCATION  FOR  THE  NEW  DEMOCRACY   29 

by  certain  state  representations  and  literary  produc- 
tions, the  cause  is  to  be  sought  in  the  absence  of  serious 
effort  to  cultivate  in  them  an  appreciation  of  what  is 
best  in  musical  and  literary  form."  This  English 
writer^  attempts  to  show  that  "the  cultivation  of  feel- 
ing is  a  desirable  thing,  and  that  its  expression  and 
modification  through  suitable  channels  are  essential  for 
well-ordered  mental  life,"  and  that  the  *' accepted  chan- 
nels of  aesthetic  expression  are  of  more  than  conventional 
value."  Wniiam  James  used  to  say  that  all  civilizations 
were  more  or  less  afraid  of  the  cultivation  of  human 
feelings  because  of  the  certain  dangers  accompanying 
the  exercise  of  them,  even  the  Greeks  being,  in  his  view, 
too  timid  to  give  sufficient  range  to  tap  the  real  educa- 
tional resources  inherent  in  the  full  play  of  our  emo- 
tional activity.  We  do  not  know  how  to  use  and  still 
safeguard  our  feeling  life  because  we  do  not  know  how 
to  socialize  our  feelings.  Neither,  according  to  Mr. 
Keatinge,  do  we  know  how  to  insist  upon  strenuous 
effort  in  all  aesthetic  production  or  appreciation.  If  we 
could  so  make  strong  endeavor  permeate  the  feeling 
complex  we  should  avert  the  real  danger  of  "softness 
and  lack  of  control."  "It  is  the  lounger  (in  exercising 
his  emotional  Kfe),  not  the  worker,  who  is  on  the  brink  of 
the  precipice."  According  to  crudely  made  investiga- 
tions, aesthetic  feeling  has  a  negative  correlation  with 
most  other  desirable  qualities  and  processes  of  the  mind. 
How  account  for  the  present  state  of  perverted  feel- 
ing? Why  do  the  strenuous  high  school  boys  and  the 
most  highly  rated  teachers  and  administrators  refuse  to 
take  seriously  the  proposition  that  artistic  expression 
and  appreciation  of  art  (including  literature)  are  among 

1  M.  W.   Keatinge,   "Studies  in  Education."     (A.  &  C.   Black, 
Ltd.,  London,  1916.)     (46) 


30  HIGH  SCHOOL  ADMINISTRATION 

the  things  in  life  that  really  matter?  Is  it  true  that 
only  the  "feeble  boys  who  have  fallen  out  of  line  and 
who  shirk  sports,  feebly  cultivate  the  arts  in  seclusion 
under  the  guidance  of  specialist  art  and  music  masters 
who  are  not  important  members  of  the  school  staff"? 
Are  we  in  great  measure  open  to  the  criticism  that  Mr. 
Keatinge  directs  at  the  secondary  schools  of  England? 
Are  not  his  comments  true  of  us  that  adult  life  of  Amer- 
ica has  as  a  rule  no  means  of  artistic  expression  or  ap- 
preciation, is  driven  to  futile  pursuits  for  relaxation,  is 
atrophying  the  higher  feelings,  and  is  therefore  fonder 
of  food  and  drink  and  possessed  of  a  "morbid  craving 
for  rapid  motion"?  "Once  youth  is  past  there  is  no 
time  to  acquire  the  technic  of  the  arts;  foolish  plea- 
sures are  indulged  in  because  the  power  to  enjoy  others 
is  wanting,  and  we  have  the  spectacle  of  a  community 
that  has  forgotten  most  of  the  dead  knowledge  which 
it  acquired  in  its  school-days  and  has  no  means  of  occu- 
pying itself  creatively  in  its  leisure  hours."  "...  Artis- 
tic feeling  must  be  cultivated  for  the  sake  of  the  com- 
munity or  with  still  wider  reference";  it  must  be  a 
"form  of  social  service."  There  is  no  such  thing  as 
socializing  the  individual  high  school  boy  or  girl  unless 
his  "feelings  undergo  the  same  process." 

There  is  perhaps  too  much  talk  of  the  moral  value  of 
the  course  of  study,  in  the  superficial  sense  that  this  is 
an  element  to  be  added  as  an  accretion  to  the  primary 
purpose  of  the  subject  of  study  in  question.  If  a  sub- 
ject has  religious  or  moral  value,  it  has  it  intrinsically, 
and  genuine  teaching  will  bring  it  out.  The  real  ques- 
tion for  the  school  is  the  practical  one  of  whether  we 
can  hasten  wisely  the  process  of  moralizing  the  pupils 
by  a  more  differentiated  curriculum,  adding  specific 
moral  instruction.     Ideally,  the  course  of  study  should 


EDUCATION  FOR  THE  NEW  DEMOCRACY  31 

do  everything  for  the  child.  In  our  actual  situation, 
however,  we  have  too  few  effective  moral  influences. 
Are  we  liable  to  bungle  matters  and  deaden,  rather  than 
enliven,  the  moral  sense  by  directly  and  officially  recog- 
nizing and  establishing  a  course  in  morals  for  our  pub- 
lic schools?  It  is  absurd  to  say  this  cannot  be  done. 
It  has  been  done  in  thousands  of  good  homes;  there  are 
conspicuous  examples  of  its  success  in  public  schools. 
Non-theological  moral  instruction  should  be  adapted,  of 
course,  to  social  needs.  It  is  a  question  simply  of  the 
degree  of  seriousness,  judiciousness,  and  liberality  of 
the  ranks  of  teachers  and  of  educational  leaders.  As 
with  art  in  our  programme  of  studies,  it  may  well  be 
that  we  as  a  nation  are  not  yet  sufficiently  eager  for 
social  moral  insight  to  create  a  telling  demand  for 
teachers  who  can  convey  moral  truths  delicately  and 
yet  directly.  Intellectualism,  the  easiest  deduction 
from  Herbartian  philosophy,  with  us  as  with  Germany, 
and  Spencer's  salvation  through  scientific  fact  alone, 
powerful  with  us  as  with  France,  have  effectually,  for 
too  long,  obscured  some  of  the  finer  aspects  of  the  edu- 
cative process.  The  so-called  incidental  culture  of 
moral  insight,  as  of  art  appreciation,  is,  in  certain  stages 
of  development,  a  poor,  spineless  policy. 

We  are  now  striving  to  consider  our  relation  to  this 
actual  social  world  of  ours,  as  honestly  and  with  as 
much  faith  and  spirit  as  we  have  learned  to  look  upon 
inanimate  nature.  Before  we,  refining  the  spirit  of 
Rousseau,  learned  to  love  nature  as  she  is,  to  love  her 
stupidity,  her  unresponsiveness,  her  massiveness,  her 
mysterious  air,  her  hidden  and  never  more  than  half- 
revealed  meaning — until  this  time  we  placed  our  educa- 
tional hopes  in  mysterious  processes,  in  forced  faiths. 
Naturalism  was  a  great  step  toward  actuality  under 


32  HIGH  SCHOOL  ADMINISTRATION 

every-day  guise.  It  meant  that  educators  might  use 
some  of  the  resources  of  every-day  enviromnent. 

But  morality  in  a  democracy  is  a  coat  of  many  colors 
and  nature  is  not  all  of  environment;  the  human  element 
must  be  added.  The  child  must  be  inducted  into  social 
life  by  some  sort  of  reproduced  social  activity.  It  is  here 
that  the  school  can  best  utilize  its  corporate  life  to  pro- 
mote civic  loyalty  and  virtue,  individual  independence 
and  co-operation.  This  new  emphasis  should  be  upon 
the  constructive  policy  of  making  educational  use  of  all 
school  exercises  of  classroom  and  of  playground — every 
incident  of  school  life — that  they  may  present  a  work- 
ing contact  with  the  average  affairs  of  every-day  life. 
All  these  naturalized  school  attitudes  are  full  of  moral 
possibilities.  The  school  must  contrive  with  pointed 
and  organized  effort  to  make  these  moral  situations 
seem  natural  and  innate,  not  arbitrary,  literal,  exter- 
nally imposed,  and  hence  artificial.  Self-discipline,  and 
hence  school  discipline,  consists  in  so  contriving  that 
all  revelations  of  Hfe  situations  where  moral  forces  are 
at  work  shall  be  such  that  pupils  gradually  and  nat- 
urally acquire  the  attitude  of  looking  upon  moral  forces 
as  just  as  real  and  as  inexorable  as  all  other  of  nature's 
forces  are  real  and  inexorable. 

From  this  point,  then,  the  school  is  primarily  an  insti- 
tution for  reproducing  the  forces  and  environment  of 
typical  communities  and  for  gradually  developing  in 
accord  with  this  controlled  social  school  atmosphere  the 
working  structures  of  individualities  found  in  the  pupils. 
This  is  democracy.  This  is  the  public  school's  mission, 
morally  and  aesthetically.  An  understanding  of  modern 
complex  social  and  industrial  environment,  with  hy- 
gienic insight,  idealized,  will  surely  largely  constitute 
our  moral  equipment.    Higher  sanctions  than  these,  our 


EDUCATION  FOR  THE  NEW  DEMOCRACY  33 

faith  in  the  conservation  and  even  evolution  of  life's 
deeper  values,  will  in  due  course  be  revealed  in  this  vast 
social  process  whose  central  moving  force  should  be  the 
people's  schools. 


PARTY  PLATFORMS  IN  EDUCATION^ 

We  will  suppose  the  events  which  I  am  to  describe  to 
have  taken  place  during  the  summer  and  fall  of  1920: 

More  and  more  had  European  and  Far-Eastern  peo- 
ples lined  themselves  up  and  wasted  themselves  in  the 
gigantic  world  struggle  of  profound  and  opposite  princi- 
ples of  philosophy,  social  justice,  economic  interests, 
political  organization,  and  individual  right.  More  and 
more  serious  and  reflective  and  awed  had  American  peo- 
ples become  as  the  sharply  opposing  views  of  life  bat- 
tled on  with  the  hopeless  automatic  common  soldiers  of 
the  trenches  as  their  mechanical  instruments  of  war, 

Americans — even  the  ranks  of  teachers — began  to 
recognize  the  profoundly  incompatible  principles  which, 
underneath  the  immediately  human  aspect  of  the  war, 

^  In  the  fall  of  1915  Mr.  Johnston  presented  the  following  chapter 
as  a  lecture  before  his  class  in  high  school  administration  at  the  Uni- 
versity of  Illinois.  It  came  as  the  result  of  a  previous  class  discus- 
sion on  the  necessity  of  a  teacher  having  a  philosophy  of  education, 
in  which  discussion  Mr,  Johnston  took  the  attitude  that,  desirable 
and  necessary  as  it  was  to  have  a  philosophy,  the  vast  majority  of 
men  and  women  in  the  teaching  ranks  lack  the  required  training 
that  would  enable  them  to  become  independent  thinkers.  While 
they  might  desire  a  consistent  philosophy  of  education  and  strive 
to  attain  one,  for  many  this  would  result  only  in  a  sort  of  eclecticism. 
At  best,  as  he  said,  it  would  be  but  a  mixture  of  the  principal  tenets 
of  the  opposing  camps  washed  over  with  a  sort  of  practical  common 
sense  that  would  modify  and  neutralize  both.  Consequently,  in  his 
characteristic  whimsical  way  he  developed  and  enlarged  his  idea, 
and  at  a  subsequent  meeting  of  the  class  presented  this  chapter  in 
a  spirit  of  half-seriousness.  Later  the  specific  "Planks"  of  his 
"Educational  Party  Platforms"  appeared  from  time  to  time  as 
editorials  in  the  Journal  of  Educational  Administration  and  Super- 
vision. 

34 


PARTY  PLATFORMS  IN  EDUCATION  S5 

were  bidding  for  our  homage,  our  approval,  our  loyalty. 
We  all,  even  teachers,  began  to  see  clearly  in  the  present 
world  situation  a  spectacle  of  the  breakdown  of  national- 
ism as  the  welding  philosophy  of  politics  of  races  or  of 
cultures.  We  began  to  see  on  this  vast  scale  that  we 
were  not  ourselves  involved  in  this  actual  demonstra- 
tion of  failure  of  educational  ideals  for  any  virtue  of  our 
own,  but  merely  by  our  accidental  geographical  posi- 
tion. Seeing  more  clearly  this  real  issue  underneath 
the  world's  awful  but  indeterminate  brute  appeal  to 
force,  we,  after  six  years  of  paralyzed  indecision,  had 
set  about  a  radical  reconstruction  of  our  thoughts  on 
life,  politics,  philosophy,  and  education. 

The  changes  in  controlling  ideals  and  actual  practices 
in  private  individual  and  family  life,  or  in  the  philosophy 
of  our  new  thought  leaders,  I  shall  not  recount.  The 
momentous  and  revolutionary  changes  in  the  whole 
political  world  were  too  profound  for  us  to  note  in  pass- 
ing. To  the  educational  changes  wrought  in  this  crisis 
which  we  here  project  and  dare  to  anticipate  we  may 
devote  this  discussion. 

The  army  of  seven  hundred  thousand  teachers  became 
in  this  period  profoundly  dissatisfied  with  their  own  mud- 
dling along,  their  own  customary  indififerentism  in  merely 
patching  up  their  frail  little  machinery  of  classroom  man- 
agement, literal  discipline,  and  antiquated  ideas  and 
problems  of  literal  pedagogy.  Teachers,  formerly  satis- 
fied to  be  harmless,  merely  "nice,"  respectable,  prim, 
obedient  to  convention  and  to  benevolent  or  blustery  au- 
tocratic administrators,  had  suddenly  awakened  to  a  full 
self-consciousness  of  their  power.  With  this  they  had 
become  painfully  conscious  of  their  lack  of  an  impelling 
ideal.  They  began  everywhere  to  demand  such  an  ideal 
— to  agonize  in  thought  to  make  this  ideal  articulate — 


36  HIGH  SCHOOL  ADMINISTRATION 

to  erect  it  into  a  flag  standard  around  which  in  their 
deepest  loyalty  and  devotion  they  could  rally,  for  which 
they  could  put  up  their  spiritual  fight.  It  was  their  cry 
in  the  wilderness. 

More  in  detail  the  teachers  became  tired  of  the  teach- 
ers' meetings  of  the  old  sort.  They  were  surfeited  with 
the  amazing  and  intricate  technic  done  for  them  in  the 
elaborate  made-to-order  lesson  plans  of  school  man- 
agement books  and  teachers,  they  were  distrustful  of 
ready-made  recipes  for  effective  good  school  behavior, 
they  began  to  suspect  the  mental  nutriment  in  much  of 
the  peptonized  subject-matter  in  their  schematic  and 
"  full-of -directions "  text-books.  Likewise  they  had  be- 
come disillusioned  as  to  the  immaculately  detached  clois- 
teral  scholarship  ideal  erected  for  their  worship  by  col- 
lege professors.  They  had  begun  to  feel  the  restrictions 
involved  in  the  "reading-circle"  prescriptions.  They 
had  become  decidedly  restive  regarding  their  civic  os- 
tracism. They  wished  to  be  real  citizens.  They  had 
evolved  to  the  stage  where  they  were  dissatisfied  with 
the  former  characteristic  schoolroom  function  of  "dis- 
ciplining children's  minds."  They  had  discarded  this 
doctrine  of  repression.  Another  symptom  of  this  pow- 
erful awakened  teacher  mind  was  a  dignified  but  clearly 
settled  determination  gradually  to  replace  all  forms  of 
autocratic  internal  school  government,  even  when  be- 
nevolent, by  a  form  of  conscious  co-operative  demo- 
cratic regulation  of  school  affairs,  wherein  all  con- 
cerned in  some  measure  participated.  More  profound 
were  two  other  symptoms.  Teachers  in  this  new  seri- 
ous, spiritual  frame  of  mind  had  become  aware  not  only 
of  the  fact  that  the  education  they  were  giving  had  been 
too  intellectualistic,  literal,  and  externally  superimposed, 
and  that  it  lacked  the  social  element,  but  also  that  they 


PARTY  PLATFORMS  IN  EDUCATION  37 

at  last  saw  the  warped  emotionalism  which  school  exer- 
cises were  failing  to  modify  and  to  develop.  Profes- 
sionally, also,  they  had,  after  their  first  enthusiasm  had 
been  spent,  begun  to  recoil  against  the  then  current  and 
wide-spread  and  popular  as  well  as  "scientific"  notion 
of  rating  a  teacher's  work  purely  and  only  by  quantita- 
tive rankings.  They  had  in  this  1920th  year  thoroughly 
awakened  to  the  actual  oversight  of  profoundly  spiritual 
elements.  They  saw  they  had  never  followed  a  philoso- 
phy of  education,  but  had  merely  accepted  from  time  to 
time  the  temporary  leadership  of  a  writer,  a  speaker,  a 
book,  an  article,  a  magazine,  a  friend,  or  even  an  im- 
pulse. 

It  fortunately  happened  at  this  supremely  critical 
period  of  American  politics  and  education  that  both 
political  leaders  and  educational  leaders  knew  some- 
thing of  Aristotle  and  his  lofty  conceptions  of  politics 
and  education. 

It  was  decided  in  this  month  of  June,  1920,  to  co- 
ordinate in  our  nation  our  political  and  our  educational 
state  activities.  This  meant  the  purification  of  both. 
Among  other  things,  it  meant  that  education,  too,  might 
in  its  new  and  important  position  in  the  state  adopt 
one  political  device — the  party  platform.  So  we  had  on 
this  momentous  occasion  the  spectacle  in  education  as 
well  as  in  politics  of  divisions  into  parties  with  plat- 
forms advocating  in  all  their  planks  fundamentally  dif- 
ferent positions,  different  methods,  and  different  aims  in 
all  current  distinguishable  problems  confronting  actual 
teachers. 

Our  attention,  however,  had  been  of  late  frequently 
called  to  the  stage  of  evolution  of  our  political  parties 
into  divisions  distinguishable  and  characterizable  in 
terms  of  different  basic  principles  of  government — and 


38  HIGH  SCHOOL  ADMINISTRATION 

of  the  more  subtle  but  also  more  determining  differences 
in  political  temperament.  Nothing  else  ever  so  effec- 
tively elevated  politics  and  advanced  us  toward  democ- 
racy. 

Likewise  party  platforms  in  education  emerged  from 
the  chaotic  ferment  of  plausible  but  somehow  scarcely 
profound  discussions  in  our  current  educational  litera- 
ture. Teachers  began  to  ask:  Are  there  fimdamental 
conceptions  of  education  which  now  divide  the  modern 
moulders  of  educational  opinion  ?  Are  there  inarticulate 
party  platforms  to  which  the  one  or  the  other  of  us 
may  adhere?  Are  the  ranks  of  teachers  able  to  adhere 
to  a  platform  of  principles,  an  educational  philosophy, 
and  resist  the  impulse  to  follow  this  or  that  speaker, 
this  or  that  article,  this  or  that  reading-circle  book? 
Can  they  prefer  and  can  they  understand  the  more  fun- 
damental questions  of  educational  philosophy,  disen- 
tangled from  the  particular  personal  setting  in  which 
some  speaker  or  writer  may  present  or  distort  them? 

There  were  at  last  unmistakable  evidences  that  we 
had  approached  an  ideahstic  interpretation  of  educa- 
tion. All  educators  and  teachers  began  to  ask:  Shall  we 
in  types  of  teachers,  schools,  curriculums,  methods,  con- 
tinue to  aim  at  producing  types  of  men  and  women, 
making  all  alike,  at  advancing  commerce  and  industry, 
and  even  in  exalting  the  state  and  preserving  tradition; 
or  shall  we  shift  the  emphasis  in  all  respects  noted  above 
and  recognize  that  education  must  first  of  all  find  its 
goal  in  the  perfection  of  the  individual  citizens,  in  the 
broad  personality-culture,  self-sufficiency,  and  indepen- 
dent-mindedness  of  all  ?  These  questions  were  involved 
questions.  We  saw  we  should  not  solve  them  and  should 
not  decide  them  by  following  this  or  that  personal  lead- 
ership, nor  this  or  that  foreign  nation.    We  saw  that 


PARTY  PLATFORMS  IN  EDUCATION  39 

until  we  can  all  think  and  logically  follow  a  platform  of 
principles  we  shall  continue  to  be  ineffective,  merely 
playthings  of  the  vast  American  school  machinery. 

Can  we,  the  slogan  went,  in  co-operation  strive  effec- 
tively for  the  latter  goal,  and  at  the  same  time  combine 
with  this  fimdamental  philosophy  of  the  dominant  aim 
of  education  also  the  elements  of  a  high  cosmopolitanism 
and  an  ineradicable  sense  of  nationality — a  sense  of 
nationality  which  is  not  offensively  assertive  nor  too 
self-conscious. 

It  had  at  last,  to  our  consternation,  become  clear  that 
we  were  not  one  nation.  Our  differences  in  race,  reli- 
gion, language,  traditions  of  subtle  scales  of  emotional 
values,  attitudes  toward  democratic  government  even, 
and,  even  more  vital,  our  senses  of  what  should  be  our 
common  responsibilities — aU  these  differences  aggra- 
vated by  our  unregulated  and  unorganized  industries — 
had  created  a  keen  sense  among  many  educational 
thinkers  and  teachers  of  the  urgent  need  for  some  more 
effective  process  and  agency  to  genuinely  nationalize  us. 
Some  believe  in  the  ultimate  nationalization  of  our  tra- 
ditional academic  common  school  curriculum,  with  cer- 
tain elements  and  emphasis  added  which  would  imply 
service  to  the  state.  Others  would  nationalize  a  sort  of 
vocationalized  school  curriculum  with  its  humanizing 
aim.  of  making  labor  universally  respected  and  respect- 
able. There  are  still  others  who  would  like  for  a  nation 
somehow  to  begin  upon  a  national  scale  a  new  form  of 
education — universal  miUtary  education,  in  such  a  demo- 
cratic way  that  no  one  class  of  citizens  can  ever  create 
an  officer  class. 

These  were  but  illustrations  of  many  similar  made-to- 
order  suggestions  which  had  caught  most  of  us  off  our 
guard  because  we  had  provided  no  steering  platform 


40  HIGH  SCHOOL  ADMINISTRATION 

of  educational  principles  upon  which  to  organize  our- 
selves. It  is  safe  to  say  that  neither  of  our  opposing 
party  platforms  will  be  unassailable.  They  will,  how- 
ever, indicate  the  broad  Hnes  of  division  as  to  educa- 
tional values,  so  that  we  may  in  the  spirit  of  Dewey's 
"experimental"  national  philosophy  cast  in  our  lot  with 
one  or  the  other  camp  of  workers  and  thinkers,  and  get 
the  enormous  benefit  of  a  high-grade  sort  of  professional 
co-operation  and  the  spiritual  inspiration  without  which 
we  can  only  return  to  our  routine,  never  make  a  new 
nation — without  which,  indeed,  we  can  never  again 
attain  even  self-respect. 

A  national  convention  of  teachers  was  called.  It 
convened,  twenty-five  thousand  strong,  picked  delegates 
of  the  seven  hundred  thousand  in  the  ranks.  Heated 
and  persistent  discussions  and  vigorous  personal  solu- 
tions of  vexed  and  various  educational  problems  con- 
sumed three  days.  It  suddenly  dawned  upon  the  chair- 
man of  the  convention  that  there  was  a  fairly  clear  line 
of  cleavage  among  the  delegates.  He  adjourned  the 
convention  so  that,  in  the  meantime,  a  strong  steering 
commission  might  draw  up,  fairly  and  justly,  the  typi- 
cal attitudes  of  the  two  opposing  camps  in  the  teaching 
body,  and  present  in  clear,  concise  language  these  two 
educational  platforms  to  the  representative  assembly  for 
whatever  sort  of  action  they  seemed  to  require.  All 
sides  were  animated  with  unquestionable  patriotic  and 
humanitarian  motives. 

The  convention  was  to  vote  upon  and  thus  spiritually 
to  sanction,  but  not  to  coerce,  a  national  trial  for  a 
period  of  four  years  of  the  one  or  the  other  platform. 

Never  before  had  education  enjoyed  such  wholesome, 
such  critical,  and  such  wide  publicity.  The  conven- 
tion, the  commission,  the  speakers,  even  the  planks  in 


PARTY  PLATFORMS  IN  EDUCATION  41 

the  different  platforms,  were  discussed  in  the  entire  press 
of  the  country.  Every  local  paper  enriched  educational 
literature  by  its  unique  explanations  and  local  applica- 
tions of  the  doctrines.  No  national  event  had  ever 
before  so  effectively  educated  a  nation.  Never  since 
Plato's  time  had  educational  issues  so  gripped  the 
national  mind. 

The  convention  assembled  on  this  last  day's  session 
to  hear  the  two  platforms  of  educational  principles  ex- 
plained fully.  No  delegate  was  absent.  Almost  all  had 
heard  from  an  interested  and  intelligent  home  constitu- 
ency. All  were  casting  the  most  critical  vote  of  their 
lives,  and  they  knew  it.  All  were  awed  by  the  import 
of  their  collective  action;  all  were  inspired. 

The  two  parties  had  agreed  to  style  themselves  Ab- 
solutists and  Experimentalists.  Their  respective  plat- 
forms read  as  follows: 

The  Junior  High  School  Movement 
Absolutists. 

We  go  on  record  as  opposed  to  the  so-called  "re- 
organization," or  rearrangement,  of  the  grades  of  the 
public-school  system.  It  should,  indeed,  rather  be 
called  the  "mutilation"  of  the  great  American  common 
school.  The  present  system  represents  the  pooled  edu- 
cational experience  of  all  our  common-school  develop- 
ment and  is,  in  the  absence  of  proof  to  the  contrary, 
likely  to  be  better  than  any  new-fangled  arrangement 
devised  by  theoretical  "experts."  We  wish  to  let  our 
slow  but  undeniable  developments  in  public  education 
proceed  unjarred  by  such  sudden  and  violent  readjust- 
ments and  to  see  internal  improvements  refined  and 
teachers  and  teaching  bettered  rather  than  witness  a 
wholesale  but  superficial  tinkering  with  merely  admin- 


42  HIGH  SCHOOL  ADMINISTRATION 

istrative  externals  under  the  guise  of  educational  reform. 
If  the  junior  high  school  is  started  and  sanctioned  by 
our  great  and  conservative  party  it  might  spread  widely. 
In  such  case  many  old  superintendents  who  cannot  do 
modern  curriculimi  thinking  will  experience  painful 
jolts,  and  some  will  even  lose  their  jobs.  It  is  certain, 
too,  in  our  attitude  of  opposition  we  may  count  upon 
some  school  patrons,  some  school-teachers,  and  some 
school-board  members  to  object.  A  further  considera- 
tion which  makes  ours  a  "safe"  position  is  that  many 
proponents  of  the  new  scheme  are  overenthusiastic,  and 
hence  will  make  many  easily  assailable  statements  and 
claims. 

Experimentalists. 

We  believe  in  "reorganization"  just  because,  partly, 
it  has  been  one  of  the  wide-spread  and  vigorous  dev-elop- 
ments  of  which  we  are  now  merely  becoming  aware.  It 
has  come  out  of  the  very  loins  of  our  progressive  school 
experimenters — those  who  do  our  constructive  "curricu- 
lum thinking."  It  represents  in  its  various  t3^es  the 
very  sort  of  wholesome  administrative  experimentalism 
in  educational  practice  for  which  our  party  stands.  We 
also  believe  in  it  because  practically  none  who  have 
adopted  it  have  found  reason  to  abandon  it.  This 
plank  in  our  platform  impHes  decisive  attitudes  regard- 
ing other  sound  reforms  and  new,  practical  steps  looking 
toward  more  design  in  our  school  administration,  espe- 
cially in  the  administration  of  the  curriculum. 

Curriculum  Differentiation 
Absolutists. 

The  Absolutists  oppose  as  a  school  policy  curriculum 
differentiation  as  applicable  below  the  loth  grade,  and 


PARTY  PLATFORMS  IN  EDUCATION  43 

think  of  it  as  a  wilful  segregation  of  7th,  8th,  and  9th 
grade  boys  and  girls  in  order  to  subject  them  forcibly  to 
different  and  alienating  trainings,  to  keep  them  spatially 
apart  during  the  operation  of  reciting,  to  make  them  im- 
like  for  the  mere  sake  of  unlikeness,  and  to  allow  privi- 
leges to  some  in  the  form  of  extra  work,  systematic 
opportunity  for  different  rates  of  progress  by  groups, 
special  coveted  skills  where  feasible,  and  favorable  condi- 
tions for  the  culture  of  personalities  by  whatever  means 
these  personaHties  may  be  affected  (linguistic,  clerical, 
domestic,  manual,  prevocational,  or  otherwise).  These 
Absolutists  are  temperamentally  suspicious  of  any  en- 
croachments upon  the  historic  preserves  of  the  now  ideal- 
ized elementary  school. 

In  the  Introduction  to  the  Fourteenth  Yearbook  oj  the 
National  Society  (concurred  in  presumably  by  all  the 
well-known  contributors)  we  read  about  the  uniform 
process  which  must  be  made  universal — nationalized — 
of  providing  in  an  elementary  school  the  knowledges, 
ideals,  and  habits  as  well  as  skills  in  such  a  way  that 
they  can  become  the  common  property  of  all  Ameri- 
cans. This  accepted  function  of  the  elementary  school 
is  to  secure  an  aggressive  democratic  society,  with  mem- 
bers who  can  use  rightly  and  profitably  not  only  work 
hours  but  leisure  hours,  who  are  not  only  self-supporting 
and  self-directing,  but  who  have  also  co-operative  ca- 
pacity and  the  abilities  of  leadership. 

Connect  with  this  ideal,  say  the  Absolutists,  the  nat- 
ural assumption  that  the  items  of  content  (facts  and 
concepts)  of  systematic  text-book  knowledge  are,  with 
the  tools  of  education,  the  only  means  at  hand  for 
making  it  possible  for  democratic  citizens  to  talk  sym- 
pathetically together  and  contribute  to  the  progressive 
evolution  of  our  democratic  society,  and  we  have  an  in- 


44  HIGH   SCHOOL  ADMINISTRATION 

controvertible  argument  for  the  paramount  importance 
of  the  extended-upward  single  curriculum.  Clearly 
the  business  of  democracy  is  to  set  at  once  about  the 
urgent  work  of  determining  once  for  all  these  absolute 
essentials,  fixing  them  rigidly  and  permanently  in  the 
core  of  our  non-differentiated  but  extended  elementary- 
school  curriculum,  and  then  to  find  by  the  vast  national 
experiment  thus  inaugurated  the  way  to  make  these 
little  citizens  take  our  scientific  common  pabulum  in 
the  most  acquiescent  manner  consistent  with  intellec- 
tualistic  digestion  and  with  the  utmost  of  precision  as 
regards  accuracy  and  regularity  of  swallowing.  This 
daring  dream  of  national  uniformity  enables  us  to  pic- 
ture more  easily  the  block  universe,  and  to  appreciate 
the  literal  and  easiest  interpretation  of  the  melting-pot 
doctrine.  It  tends  to  remind  us  forcibly  that  the  amaz- 
ing belief  in  content  is  still  widely  current.  It  has 
taken  on  the  new  function  of  making  for  aggressive 
democracy  and  producing  ideals. 

Experimentalists. 

The  Experimentalists  agree  with  all  the  high  and  well- 
expressed  purposes  of  American  democracy  noted  above. 
What  they  refuse  to  adopt  as  the  necessary  means  to 
accomplish  this  democratic  goal  is  just  this  oversys- 
tematized  and  unadaptable  common  fund  of  mere  items 
of  information.  It  is,  they  think,  the  old  American 
text-book  uniformity  philosophy  of  a  curriculum — a 
fool-proof  curriculum — the  educational  philosopher's 
stone.  They  suspect  the  thin  veneer  of  such  education 
for  all  alike,  whether  they  are  suited  for  it  or  not,  espe- 
cially for  the  years  thirteen  to  fifteen,  when  conscious 
development  of  trained  individuality  can  and  should  be 
uppermost. 


PARTY  PLATFORMS  IN  EDUCATION  45 

Vocational  Education 
Absolutists. 

The  makers  of  our  constitution  and  the  organizers  of 
our  original  common-school  system  and  curriculum  and 
our  historic  Committee  of  Ten  (1893)  for  high  schools 
did  not  anticipate  the  present  dangerous  propaganda  for 
vocational  education  in  the  people's  schools.  Their 
conception  of  education  fortunately  did  not  embrace 
this  element.  Indeed,  from  this  fact  and  from  our  own 
reasoning  in  the  field  of  educational  theory  we  feel  that, 
after  all,  the  need  for  it  is  largely  fictitious  and  the 
understanding  of  what  is  wanted  wholly  vague;  in  short, 
that  the  demand  is  hatched  up  by  the  "interests,"  and 
that  the  specific  proposals  to  furnish  it  are  psychologi- 
cally as  well  as  socially  unsound.  In  short,  we  depre- 
cate the  movement,  discredit  the  underlying  philosophy, 
and  reiterate  our  belief  in  the  adequacy  of  the  present 
ingredients  of  our  hitherto-respected  and  still  respecta- 
ble curriculum. 

Experimentalists. 

In  the  present  stage  of  the  whole  developing  but  still 
perplexing  question  we  adhere  to  and  announce  as  our 
platform  standards  the  following  two  clear  principles  of 
vocational  education: 

First:  That  despite  any  ideal  theory  of  an  ultimate 
type  of  common  education  for  a  democracy  we  stand 
firmly  committed  to  the  fundamental  principle  of  always 
adjusting  our  educational  offerings  to  an  undeniable  and 
unescapable  present  and  industrial  situation,  if  this  situa- 
tion is  to  exist  throughout  the  lifetime  of  the  individuals 
directly  concerned.  Second:  We  also  announce  the  prin- 
ciple of  trying  to  reach  a  social  industrial  and  educa- 


46  raOH  SCHOOL  ADMINISTRATION 

tional  level  where  we  can  educate  not  to  adjustment  but 
to  alter  and  even  to  transform  our  whole  social  and  indus- 
trial situation. 

Standards  for  American  High  Schools 
Absolutists. 

We  believe  in  the  American  high  school  as  a  selective 
institution.  We  believe  in  accepting  the  standards  of 
scholarly  thoroughness  and  of  rigor  in  exclusively  aca- 
demic exercises  as  maintained  by  the  German  gymna- 
siimi.  We  accept  such  standards,  conscious  that  this 
policy  will  exclude  large  numbers  from  the  high  school. 

Experimentalists. 

We  believe  that  the  American  high  school  as  a  non- 
selective democratic  institution  cannot  operate  exclu- 
sively on  a  scholastic  basis  for  entrance  nor  for  progres- 
sive achievement  of  its  heterogeneous  groups  of  pupils; 
but  that  differing  standards  for  both  entrance  and  for 
persistence  in  school  must  be  worked  out  in  such  a  way 
that  no  pupil  sufficiently  mature  will  have  to  be  vir- 
tually forced  out  because  of  the  lack  of  suitable  educa- 
tional opportunity  being  provided  him. 

High  School  Entrance  Requirements 
Absolutists. 

We  believe  in  a  strict  adherence  to  the  rule  that  the 
satisfactory  completion  of  8th  grade  academic  work  be 
the  only  method  of  admission  to  our  high  schools. 

Experimentalists. 

In  our  reorganized  system  of  six-year  elementary, 
three-year  junior  high  school,  three-year  senior  high 
school,  we  believe  in  placing  no  artificial  barriers  to 


PARTY  PLATFORMS  IN  EDUCATION  47 

prevent  escap>e  from  elementary  schools,  nor  from  en- 
trance to  the  needed  sort  of  work  in  the  differentiated 
curriculums  of  the  junior  high  school.  The  pupil's  need 
of  some  one  of  our  different  kinds  of  junior  or  senior 
schemes  of  high  school  training — ^not  quality  nor  quan- 
tity of  academic  work  where  maturity  is  assured — shall 
always  be  the  primary  test.  The  proper  administrative 
flexibility  here  and  educational  judgment  can  provide  a 
more  generous  and  a  more  just  as  well  as  an  equally 
high  standard  of  school  work,  differing  in  kind  as  the 
qualities,  maturities,  and  social  requirements  of  the 
pupils  concerned  differ. 

Prescribed  Units  in  High  School  Work 
Absolutists. 

We  believe  in  the  cormnon  prescriptions  of  the  stand- 
ard traditional  units  of  three  years  English  or  four,  two 
or  three  mathematics,  three  or  four  Latin,  one  year 
ancient  history  (ancient  to  insure  sufficient  historicity), 
and  one  year  of  science  (logically  organized  into  a  re- 
spectable Science)]  and  we  approve  a  limitation  upon 
the  amoimt  of  vocational  work  which  may  be  offered. 
(This  vocational  work  must  be  formal  and  "curricu- 
larized.'O 

Experimentalists. 

Believing  in  the  partial  or  clean-cut  differentiation  of 
junior  and  senior  high  school  curriculums  we  indorse 
the  movement  to  shift  the  emphasis  and  the  content  of 
the  units  to  be  universally  required  from  the  traditional 
ones  which  now  stand  upon  the  shaky  and  hazy  ground 
of  formal  discipline  and  foreign  culture  (instrumental 
only  in  function,  also),  and  to  place  our  great  emphasis 
upon  the  content  elements  of  natural  science  and  social 


48  HIGH   SCHOOL  ADMINISTRATION 

science  which  respectively  reveal  the  world  we  live  in 
and  the  world  where  operate  the  laws  and  forms  of  our 
own  lives.  We  should  then  have  as  prescribed  units 
(with  a  different  definition  of  units)  three  English,  two 
social  science,  two  natural  science,  and  possibly  two  of 
reorganized  mathematics. 

Internal  Government  of  Schools 
Absolutists. 

We  believe  in  the  autocratic  management  of  a  school. 
We  believe  that  order,  precision,  obedience,  quiet,  a 
pupil-body  sense  of  a  higher  directing  power  should  per- 
meate all  well-governed  schools.  We  therefore  depre- 
cate all  tendency  to  break  up  this  time-honored  custom 
of  personal  authority  by  any  so-called  constitution  and 
distribution  of  governmental  functions  to  the  various 
members  and  organizations  within  the  school  life  itself. 
The  school  is  not  a  miniature  state  or  society,  but  an 
instrument  devised  for  instrumental  purposes  of  educating 
boys  and  girls.  Designated  administrative  officers  must 
rule  all  educational,  political,  and  administrative  mat- 
ters, and  the  teachers,  always  subject  to  this  higher 
authority,  may  rule  likewise  in  classrooms.  The  func- 
tion of  pupils  is  to  be  ruled  and  taught.  Their  time  will 
come  later  for  using  their  authority  over  others,  just  as 
the  repressed  son's  time  comes  when  he  can  impose  his  will 
upon  his  formerly  dictatorial  father — or  the  freshman's 
time  comes  when  he  can  assume  the  sophomoric  role. 

Experimentalists. 

We  believe  in  the  principle  of  democratic  internal 
school  government,  especially  in  the  high  school,  which 
ideal  looks  constructively  toward  finding  means  for  the 
participation  of  all  and  for  the  co-operative  practice  of 


PARTY  PLATFORMS  IN  EDUCATION  49 

all  in  self-government.  We  do  not  believe  in  school 
board  or  superintendent  or  principal  or  teacher  or  stu- 
dent government;  but  we  do  believe  that  a  persistent 
co-operative  effort,  long  continued,  may  evolve  a  plan 
whereby  all  concerned  may  in  the  proper  degree  par- 
ticipate in  and  get  practice  and  acquire  ability  in  the 
vital  matter  of  co-operative  living,  of  making  the  whole 
school  itself  literally  run  well.  We  are  educating  for 
democracy.  The  school  must  furnish  some  safe  prac- 
tice in  democratic  living.  This  must  be  the  definite  aim 
of  social  administration,  and  in  some  measure  this  ex- 
periment should  be  hazarded  in  all  schools,  even  at  the 
cost  of  some  initial  confusion  and  some  temporary  dis- 
order and  dissatisfaction. 

The  Doctrine  of  Interest  and  Effort 
Absolutists. 

Work,  efficiency,  effort  is  the  salvation  of  our  schools 
as  of  our  nation.  We  believe  that  the  laissez-faire  indi- 
vidualism of  our  American  schools  has  gone  too  far, 
that  our  students  regularly  shirk  work,  and  that  teach- 
ers have  got  in  the  habit  of  accepting  this  slipshod  per- 
formance. We  believe  that  only  conscious,  habitual 
submission  to  and  conscious  continuous  practice  in  tasks 
themselves  requiring  unpleasant  effort  will  produce  de- 
sirable mental  results.  We  frankly  proclaim  the  "doc- 
trine of  pain,"  and  almost,  if  not  quite,  believe  that  a 
thing  is  educational  because  it  is  unpleasant  or  painful, 
and  that  this  is  the  prospect  for  which  we  should  harden 
children  while  we  have  them  in  school. 

Experimentalists. 

We  believe  that  there  has  been  a  false  antagonism  set 
up  between  what  interests  and  what  requires  effort,  and 


60  HIGH  SCHOOL  ADMINISTRATION 

a  false  description  given  of  what  the  feeling  of  effort  is. 
Our  opponents  have  confused  the  immediately  diverting 
and  purely  sensuously  pleasant  with  the  far  different 
thing,  the  deeply  and  personally  satisfying — ^an  ideal  as 
old  as  Aristotle.  Consequently  we  believe  in  the  adop- 
tion of  the  doctrine  of  self-activity,  self-motivation — • 
all  with  the  teachers'  co-operating  understanding  direc- 
tion. This  is  a  programme  and  platform  of  effort-work 
(or  action)  surely,  but  not  one  of  Buddhistic  acquies- 
cence in  mere  work  for  work's  sake.  Our  work-action 
doctrine  is  both  more  productive  of  efforts  which  con- 
tinue and  accomplish,  and  of  interests  which  develop, 
endure,  and  stimulate.  We  renounce  the  Uteral  and 
cynical  toil-and-taskmaster  conception  of  the  nature  of 
the  educative  process,  although  recognizing  that  under 
the  necessarily  partly  artificial  conditions  of  much  school 
work  at  present  our  goal  for  working  conditions  and 
for  motives  is  far  from  being  achieved. 

Educatioijal  Method 
Absolutists. 

We  believe  that  even  in  the  elementary  school  the 
principle  of  organization  and  presentation  of  material 
to  children  should  be  logical,  and  that  it  is  a  wholesome 
educational  doctrine  to  subordinate  wherever  possible 
the  immediate  interests  and  natural  spontaneity  of  chil- 
dren to  the  more  ultimate  and  more  purely  intellectual 
goal  of  clarity,  definiteness,  and  the  gradually  imper- 
sonal comprehension  of  facts  and  relations.  We  believe 
that  in  the  skilful  pedagogical  presentation  and  applica- 
tion by  teachers  this  necessarily  external  but  carefully 
prearranged  material  of  sense  and  ideas  will  (partly 
subconsciously)  work  for  the  best,  educationally,  in  the 


PARTY  PLATFORMS  IN  EDUCATION  51 

child's  mental  growth — even  though  it  may  seem  to 
them  "natural"  at  the  time.  In  the  main  we  have  faith 
still  in  the  Herbartian  principles  of  association  of  ideas 
and  in  the  school's  past  loyalty  in  practice  to  those  prin- 
ciples. We  regard  it  as  deplorable  to  modify,  reduce, 
or  dilute  this  method  of  logical  organization,  except 
where  temporarily  it  is  necessary  to  make  certain  ac- 
commodations to  the  child's  immaturity  or  stupidity. 
In  general,  the  things  to  be  taught  largely  determine 
our  method. 

Experimentalists. 

We  believe,  wherever  possible,  in  all  grades  teachers 
should  reject  the  dictation  of  prearranged  subject- 
matter  and  accept  as  the  very  foundation-stones  of  edu- 
cational method  the  principle  of  utilizing  to  the  full  the 
naturally  inherited  possibilities  of  the  learning  processes, 
rooted  in  the  instinctive  and  impulsive  attitudes  and 
activities  of  children  and  of  youth;  and — utilizing  these 
as  far  as  is  practical — reproduce  as  nearly  as  possible  on 
the  learner's  plane  the  typical  constructive  social  doings 
of  the  outside  world. 

We  believe  this  wave  of  educational  reconstruction 
has  been  going  on  steadily  for  years,  that  it  is  gaining  in 
scope  and  momentum,  and  that  in  both  elementary  and 
secondary  schools  it  is  the  source  of  our  present  revival 
of  interest  in  more  vital  new  subjects  and  in  more  vital 
aspects  of  traditional  subjects;  and  we  furthermore  be- 
lieve that  elaborate  existing  schemes  of  teaching  built 
largely  on  study  of  subject-matter  are  failing  to  produce 
desired  results,  and,  indeed,  always  tend  to  result  in 
mental  sterility,  in  dislike  of  school,  in  paralysis  of  in- 
terests, and  in  incapacity  for  later  active  participation 
in  the  usual  activities  of  wholesome  constructive  living. 


52  HIGH  SCHOOL  ADMINISTRATION 

School  Discipline 
Absolutists. 

We  believe  that  systematic  submission  to  outside 
authority,  kind  and  gentle,  possibly,  but,  above  all, 
firm  and  judicious,  is  a  fundamental  need  of  childhood 
and  youth,  and  that  pupils  should  always  in  school  live 
under  such  a  regime,  sense  the  consequent  order  in  all 
things,  acquire  willingness  and  skill  in  obedience,  and 
that  they  should  not  be  subjected  to  the  dangers  and 
the  confusion  of  self -direction.  They  must  lean  upon 
the  teacher's  will.  We  believe  that  the  school  should 
not  suffer  the  wastage  otherwise  due  to  this  inevitable 
floundering  of  young  pupils  incident  to  all  their  attempts 
to  acquire  a  code  of  self-discipline  with  self-direction. 

The  school  is  primarily  a  disciplining  institution — in 
morals  as  in  intellect — and  not  a  place  for  individuals  to 
go  through  the  farce  of  practising  their  individualities. 
Pupils  need  rather,  above  everything  else,  to  practise 
unpleasant  effort  to  cultivate  the  capacity  to  endure 
drudgery — to  become  reconciled  to  hard,  imcoaxed, 
uncomplimented  work.  The  colt  must  be  "broken," 
the  law  of  its  life  is  work,  labor;  so  must  be  the  child, 
the  law  of  its  life  is  to  work  under  authority.  We  be- 
lieve in  Doctor  Emerson  E.  White's  Seven  School  Vir- 
tues, and  that  the  school's  procedure  is  to  "overlay" 
with  these  the  primitive  and  non-educable  impulses  and 
activities  of  children. 

Experimentalists. 

We  believe  that  the  characteristic,  direct  and  more  or 
less  literal  school  emphasis  upon  repressive  discipline, 
external  direction  of  will,  and  submissive  obedience  to 
teacher's   orders   or   to  traditional  conceptions   of  an 


PARTY  PLATFORMS  IN  EDUCATION  53 

education  superimposed  upon  children's  natures  should 
be  largely  but  gradually  replaced  by  a  different  sort  of 
emphasis.  This  new  emphasis  should  be  upon  the  con- 
structive rather  than  upon  the  destructive  policy  of 
making  educational  use  of  all  school  exercises  of  class- 
room and  of  playground — every  incident  of  school  Hfe — 
that  they  may  present  a  working  contact  with  the 
average  affairs  of  every-day  life.  All  of  these  natu- 
ralized school  attitudes  are  fuU  of  moral  possibilities. 
The  school  must  contrive  with  pointed  and  organized 
effort  to  make  these  moral  situations  seem  natural  and 
innate,  not  arbitrary,  literal,  externally  imposed,  and 
hence  artificial.  Self-discipline,  and  hence  school  disci- 
pline, consists  in  so  contriving  that  all  revelations  of 
life  situations  where  moral  forces  are  at  work  shall  be 
such  that  pupils  gradually  and  naturally  acquire  the 
attitude  of  looking  upon  moral  forces  as  just  as  real  and 
as  inexorable  as  all  other  of  nature's  forces  are  real  and 
inexorable. 

From  the  point,  then,  of  school  discipline  the  school  is 
primarily  an  institution  for  reproducing  the  forces  and 
environment  of  typical  communities,  and  for  gradually 
developing  in  accord  with  this  controlled  social  school 
atmosphere  the  working  structures  of  individualities 
found  in  the  pupils.  As  C.  E.  Rugh  has  pointed  out, 
the  incrusted  school  tradition  of  inculcating  the  Seven 
School  Virtues  is  not  only  insufficient  but  is  actually 
misleading.  All  these  virtues  can  be  used  by  a  success- 
ful bank  robber  in  a  single  robbery.  The  public-school 
pupil  comes  not  primarily  to  learn  but  to  practise  vir- 
tue, not  to  be  "overlaid"  with  a  moral  veneer,  however 
solidly,  but  to  evolve,  through  the  modern  school's  re- 
production of  life's  very  acts  of  choice  and  of  self- 
control  in  various  intercourse  with  his  fellows,  that  fun- 


54  HIGH  SCHOOL  ADMINISTRATION 

damental   consciousness   of   active  workable   lightness 
which  we  call  character. 

Social  Recitation  in  High  School 
Absolutists. 

We  view  with  concern  and  look  askance  at  the  numer- 
ous efforts  to  organize  the  traditional  class-meeting  into 
what  is  known  as  the  social  recitation.  The  direct 
smooth  tenor  of  the  logical  development  of  topics — 
even  when  the  student  does  not  know  what  it  all  is 
about — is  a  wholesome  demonstration  of  education,  and 
always  should  characterize  school  instruction.  In  the 
new  and  overrated  social  recitation  this  smoothness  in 
technic  of  the  logical  teacher  is  endangered,  students 
lose  respect  for  the  teacher's  ability,  and  become  too 
much  interested  in  one  point  to  go  ahead  according  to 
the  prearranged  scheme.  Often  the  possibility  of  "cov- 
ering the  course"  is  lessened,  and  in  addition  it  is  more 
difficult  to  administer  final  written  examinations,  to 
give  definite  marks,  and  to  keep  order  by  maintaining 
school  silence.  We  deplore  the  tendency,  also,  because 
we  have  already  classified  our  lessons  as  drill  lessons, 
appreciation  ones,  thought  ones  (sic),  question-and- 
answer  ones,  developmental  ones,  etc.,  and  this  new 
type  overlaps,  and  simply  does  not  classify. 

Experimentalists. 

We  heartily  indorse  the  numerous  and  increasing 
instances  of  varying  the  traditional  type  of  school  reci- 
tation, particularly  that  of  so  organizing  the  class  mem- 
bership that  all  feel  a  larger  measure  of  corporate  respon- 
sibility for  the  meeting.  We  believe  that  this  tends  to 
naturalize  and  to  intensify  the  educative  process,  that 
more  pupils  participate,  and  that  the  character  of  their 


PARTY  PLATFORMS  IN  EDUCATION  55 

participation  is  better;  in  short,  that  their  zest  for  con- 
tributing from  all  sources  is  enhanced.  We  beHeve  that 
here  we  have  a  better  opportunity  for  teachers'  ingenu- 
ity, and  that  we  tap  new  sources  of  educational  material 
— ^and,  best  of  all,  in  the  upper  grades  and  in  the  high 
school,  that  we  thus  afford  better  school  adaptations  to 
the  psychological  and  social  natures  and  to  the  other 
interests  of  adolescents  in  particular. 

Directed  or  Supervised  Study 
Absolutists. 

We  deplore  the  soft  pedagogy  which  bolsters  up  the 
present  propaganda  for  so-called  supervised  study. 
This  is  but  another  dangerous  symptom  in  our  "body- 
educational."  It  merely  means  that  we  take  another 
step  in  the  pampering  of  wishy-washy,  weak-willed, 
lazy  students.  It  means  a  discouragement  to  work.  It 
means  that  we  tie  them  up  by  apron-strings,  and  never 
let  them  be  thrown  upon  their  haunches  by  genuine 
intellectual  obstacles.  It  adds,  as  useless  luxuries  do, 
extra  expense  to  our  instructional  budget,  and  develops 
in  our  teachers  the  attitude  of  a  soft  sentimentalism 
which  is  antagonistic  to  rigorous  drill  and  honest,  severe 
quizzing.  It  spares  the  intellectual  rod  merely  to  spoil 
tie  child's  intellect. 

Experimentalists. 

We  sanction  and  propose  to  further  the  development 
of  systems  of  directed  or  supervised  study.  We  beUeve 
that  much  of  traditional  school  work  has  spent  itself  on 
the  so-called  operation  of  reciting,  and  too  little  upon 
the  real  educational  problem  of  the  economic  use  of 
mental  processes.  Under  this  old  regime  we  believe 
the  mental  wastage  of  pupils  in  matters  of  spontaneous 


56  HIGH  SCHOOL  ADMINISTRATION 

curiosity,  problem-solving  motives,  and  sesthetic  and 
other  interests  has  been  appalling.  We  recognize  in  the 
new  movement  to  modify  the  daily  schedule,  the  class 
period,  the  character  of  mental  exercise  in  the  class- 
meeting,  the  co-operative  relation  and  intimacy  of 
teacher  and  pupil,  one  of  the  refreshing  innovations  in 
educational  practice  which  is  possible  only  for  educa- 
tion in  a  democracy  such  as  the  United  States,  and  in 
school  systems  not  tied  down  by  conservatism,  by 
bureaucratic  control,  and  "  whole-hog-or-none "  proce- 
dure such  as  in  European  systems.  The  automatics  or 
mechanics  of  education  are  having  quite  enough  empha- 
sis at  present.  We  need  the  influence  of  a  profounder 
philosophy  upon  our  school  problems.  While,  there- 
fore, we  look  with  favor  upon  the  many  and  ingenious 
devices  for  administration  of  supervised  study,  we  hope 
that  these  devices  may  not  become  confused  with  the 
more  fundamental  significance  of  the  movement,  which 
means,  pedagogically,  a  spiritual  reform  in  the  educa- 
tive process  itself. 


Educational  Guidance 
A  hsolutists. 

We  look  with  suspicion  on  the  tendency  among  the 
experimentally  minded  and  rash  school  administrators 
to  organize  elaborate  advisory  systems,  to  lavish  extra 
time  upon  pupils  in  serving  them  gratuitous  advice  and 
guidance  in  matters  too  intimate,  too  remote  from  aca- 
demic school  work,  and  too  vital  to  be  shouldered  off  on 
school-teachers.  We  regard  this  peering  into  individual 
traits  of  youngsters,  into  family  conditions,  into  per- 
sonal aspirations,  as  into  vocational  and  other  future  in- 
tentions, as  altogether  irrelevant  to  our  honored  and 


PARTY  PLATFORMS  IN  EDUCATION  57 

easily  defined  pedagogical  tasks.  We  say:  "Let  this  all 
be  incidental.  Don't  create  here  other  experts  as  coun- 
sellors, do  not  project  elaborate  local  surveys,  nor  wake 
up  the  safely  sleeping  and  measurably  satisfied  commu- 
nity to  such  possibilities  of  extracting  more  service  from 
our  poorly  paid  teachers." 

Experimentalists. 

We  approve  the  extending  concept  of  education  which 
finds  exemplification  in  the  school  systems  of  Boston, 
Cincinnati,  Grand  Rapids,  Salt  Lake  City,  DeKalb,  and 
hosts  of  other  progressive  cities  in  their  attempts  to  dis- 
cover, individualize,  group,  advise,  provide  pertinent 
educational  facilities  and  information  for,  and  follow 
into  vocational  and  other  careers  the  pupils  of  the  pub- 
lic schools.  We  applaud  the  attitude  of  the  teachers  in 
thus  Hberally — even  gratuitously — offering  a  more  pro- 
foundly human  service  to  their  pupils,  and  we  expect  the 
already  large  proportions  of  the  movement  to  expand  at 
an  increasing  rate  until  the  ideal  system  becomes  regu- 
larly incorporated  in  the  procedure  of  all  well-regulated 
standardized  school  systems. 

Military  Training  in  High  Schools 
A  hsolutists. 

Military  training  is  entirely  consistent  with  our  con- 
ception of  secondary  education.  Drill  classes  in  mili- 
tary tactics  and  in  mass  exercises  wUl  discipline  the 
high  school  boys.  It  doesn't  particularly  matter  that 
the  sort  of  military  education  we  can  introduce  (consid- 
ering our  source  of  teachers  and  our  school  facilities) 
will  not  be  either  a  preparation  for  the  real  work  of  the 
modern  soldier  or  a  modern  employee  in  industry. 
Neither  is  our  Latin  nor  our  history  (as  at  present  organ- 


58  HIGH  SCHOOL  ADMINISTRATION 

ized  and  taught)  a  preparation  for  real  life,  in  the  sense 
that  in  the  daily  mental  exercises  of  these  classes  these 
subjects  smack  of  reality  to  the  boys  who  are  sub- 
jected to  them.  In  all  types  of  drill  exercises — ^mili- 
tary drilling,  conjugating,  or  dating  political  and  mili- 
tary events — ^pupils  are  unconsciously  affected,  so  that 
later  they  will  fit  into  any  national  regime  which  our 
national  leaders  may  carry  through.  Like  our  system- 
atic and  carefully  prearranged  scientific  laboratory  ex- 
periments in  high  school,  these  military  exercises  will 
help  greatly  to  "routinize"  both  the  school  and  the  in- 
dividual. It  doesn't  matter  if  setting-up  drill,  practice 
in  manual  of  arms,  drilling  in  marching  on  level  sur- 
faces, and  practising  battalion  movements  on  a  smooth 
ground  and  for  parade  purposes  are  dull  and  boring  and 
unreal  for  high  school  boys.  It  doesn't  matter,  precisely 
as  it  doesn't  matter  in  the  usual  Latin  and  traditional 
mathematics  courses  if  the  development  (bodily  or  men- 
tal, as  the  case  may  be)  resulting  is  uneven,  not  sym- 
metrical and  actually  harmful  physically.  It  is  disci- 
pline; it  is  obedience,  prompt  and  unquestioning;  it  is 
mass  formation;  it  is  uniformity;  it  is  authoritative;  and 
finally  it  is  anti-individualistic,  thoroughly  in  keeping 
with  all  else  in  our  strictly  non-differentiated  high  school 
curriculum. 

Experimentalists. 

The  real  work  of  a  modern  soldier  or  of  a  modern  pro- 
fessional, commercial,  or  industrial  man  requires  and  de- 
pends upon  co-ordinated  manual  skill,  agility,  strength, 
endurance,  and  form,  all  of  which  reflect  and  express 
a  mental  and  moral  attitude.  For  the  soldier,  for  exam- 
ple, rapid  and  skilful  use  of  modern  machine-guns,  the 
throwing  arm  (for  the  hand-grenades),  short-distance 


PARTY  PLATFORMS  IN  EDUCATION  59 

running  with  a  fifty-pound  burden,  effective  use  of 
shovel  and  pick  and  other  tools  for  excavating — all  such 
results  of  concentrated  technical  training  can  be  ac- 
quired best  and  most  easily  in  a  short  time  after  ma- 
turity, as  the  Swiss,  for  example,  have  abundantly  dem- 
onstrated. In  our  American  high  schools  and  colleges 
we  have  overtramed  the  few  and  neglected  the  many; 
we  have,  possibly,  given  the  favored  few  the  genuine 
and  wholesome  fighting  spirit  whUe  failing  utterly  to 
provide  means  for  any  such  expression  for  the  great 
majority. 

Health  and  vigor  for  the  individual  at  the  critical 
high  school  period,  not  only  as  to  his  bodily  dimensions 
and  special  skills  in  popular  games,  but  as  to  the  best 
development  of  his  heart,  lungs,  and  other  vital  organs, 
together  with  an  educated  consciousness  regarding  his 
physical  efficiency  and  an  understanding  of  the  laws  of 
hygiene  in  their  concrete  personal  applications,  consti- 
tute the  goal  and  the  safeguard  of  a  nation's  citizenry  in 
the  arts  of  peace  and  war  aUke.  High  school  boys  who 
are  acquiring  physical  and  mental  control  through  a 
conscious  educative  process  of  personality  development 
in  its  broadest  and  best  sense  will  automatically  make  a 
nation  unconquerable.  Vital  unpreparedness  is  physical 
and  mental  and  moral  in  a  much  more  profound  sense 
than  it  is  technical.  As  Doctor  Dudley  Sargent,  of 
Harvard,  says,  we  want  educational  preparedness  rather 
than  gladiatorial  and  spectacular  preparedness.  We 
shall  have,  if  school  boards  hastily  adopt  measures  look- 
ing toward  incorporating  military  training  into  the  high 
school  curriculum,  an  ill-conceived  and  inadequate 
pseudo-military  science,  formalized  and  non-educational 
in  character. 

Neither  military  science  nor  formal  military  exercises 


60  HIGH  SCHOOL  ADMINISTRATION 

can  successfully  be  superimposed  or  plastered  upon  our 
developing  system  of  secondary  education.  The  peda- 
gogical disasters  sure  to  follow  can  easily  be  surmised. 
Officers,  specialists  in  this  military  science,  a  nation 
must  have,  of  course.  But  our  existing  higher  and  spe- 
cial military  institutions  must  provide  them.  If  neces- 
sary, the  nation  can  easily  afford  to  establish  additional 
sectional  institutions  of  the  West  Point  type. 

After  all  this  has  been  said,  however,  it  would  be  a 
calamity  if  our  high  schools  fail  to  capitalize  the  present 
experiences  as  regards  the  emphases  and  lessons  of  the 
World  War.  Let  us,  however,  not  in  haste  and  vague 
fear  and  excitement  confuse  universal  militarism  at  the 
immature  high  school  age  with  that  of  nationally  safe- 
guarding democracy.  No  mere  technical,  literal,  and 
formal  preparedness  will  suffice  to  secure  such  a  funda- 
mental thing  as  American  democracy.  Let  us  not  do 
soon  again  what  the  first  extreme  enthusiastic  advocates 
of  vocational  education  did;  that  is,  expect,  with  the 
first  shock  and  confused  realization  of  the  inadequacy  of 
ourselves  as  a  competing  nation  in  this  military  as  in 
the  former  vocational  sense,  that  we  can,  in  the  twinkling 
of  an  eye,  reverse  the  aims,  ideals,  policies,  and  even 
the  somewhat  naturalized  mental  processes  of  our  dem- 
ocratic life.  Militarism  has  not  yet,  let  us  remember, 
been  made  to  spell  national  efficiency,  much  less  a  still 
higher  national  destiny. 

Will,  then,  we  ask,  simple  military  drill  give  the  boys 
proper  carriage,  instil  a  wholesome  love  of  country,  and 
provoke  a  feeling  that  they  are  doing  something  for 
their  country  ?  With  broomsticks  for  their  rifles,  school 
basements  and  small  g>'mnasium  floors  for  their  drill- 
grounds,  monotonous  and  mass  marching  for  their  ath- 
letic games,  and  under  trainers  wholly  out  of  touch  and 


PARTY  PLATFORMS  IN  EDUCATION  61 

sympathy  with  the  historically  rooted  and  controlling 
ideals  of  public  high  school  education  we  can  picture 
readily  the  premature  educational  farce  of  it  all. 

Let  us,  instead,  set  to  work  to  reform  our  athletics 
and  reconstruct  our  system  of  physical  education  and 
raise  the  standard  and  dignify  the  status  and  functions 
of  our  directors  of  physical  education.  Incidentally,  we 
can  and  should  incorporate  all  legitimate  features  of 
military  exercises,  just  as  the  Boy  Scout  organizations 
have  possibly  fairly  well  done.  This  emphatically  does 
not  mean  that  our  American  high  schools  and  high  school 
men  are  to  capitulate  to  an  educational  ideal  totally 
foreign  to  the  vital  and  essentially  American  concep- 
tions upon  which  the  ultimate  success  of  American  sec- 
ondary education  depends. 

Each  educational  platform  contained  briefer  mention 
of  many  other  important  matters,  such  as  the  desirable 
core  of  the  elementary  curriculum,  the  method  of  reor- 
ganizing old  subjects  into  new  "topics  for  study,"  the 
principles  governing  admittance  into  the  school  pro- 
gramme of  new  subjects  and  methods,  and  the  desirabil- 
ity and  possibility  of  nationalizing  elementary  educa- 
tion by  selecting  elements  of  common  knowledge.  Fur- 
ther minor  planks  indicated  the  sharp  differences  be- 
tween the  two  parties.  These  were,  for  example,  the 
different  values,  methods,  and  organization  of  content  of 
history  courses  and  of  general  science,  the  basis  for 
the  selection  of  readings  in  literature,  and  the  values  of 
manual  training.  In  all  these  matters,  as,  indeed,  even 
more  sharply  in  the  matter  of  school  extension,  the  two 
parties  profoundly  and  honestly  differed. 

The  divisions  being  pretty  nearly  equal  and  the  cam- 
paigns already  launched,  itineraries  for  the  masterful 


62  HIGH  SCHOOL  ADMINISTRATION 

leaders  and  powerful  speakers,  and  also  publicity 
schemes  for  the  active  educational  and  popular  press 
were  thoroughly  mapped  out  and  executed.  The  con- 
test was  on. 

The  Absolutists  opposed  a  discernible  movement  of 
forces  they  obviously  distrusted.  They  cared  little  for 
intercormnunication  or  arbitration.  They  feared  that 
the  new  modern  army,  with  the  newly  invented  modes 
of  educational  thought  and  with  the  new  mechanical 
symbols  of  educational  values,  and  with  newly  and 
strongly  formulated  scientific  procedures,  might,  in  its 
haste  or  in  its  religion  of  quantity,  have  forgotten  some 
of  the  complex  elements  of  humane  and  wholesome 
schooling  which  for  them  are  embedded  in  the  language 
of  their  generation. 

The  Experimentalists  (after  John  Dewey,  their  patron 
saint)  incessantly  proclaimed  their  philosophy  of  free- 
dom and  fulness  of  human  companionship  as  the  aim, 
and  their  intelligent  co-operative  experimentation  as  the 
method,  and  hospitality  to  the  incorporation  of  new  ele- 
ments of  education  as  the  characteristic  attitude  of  their 
party — that  their  philosophy  of  education  did  articulate 
and  consolidate,  penetrate  and  particulate  the  ideas  to 
which  our  national  social  practice  commits  us — ^pro- 
foundly and  directly  promoting  the  efficacy  of  human 
intercourse,  irrespective  of  class,  racial,  geographical,  or 
national  limits. 

The  teacher  vote,  as  to  which  platform  of  national 
educational  principles  they  should  sanction  and  support 
in  their  daily  practice  for  the  next  four  years,  giving  it 
thus  a  thorough  test,  was  taken  in  early  September  just 
as  the  schools  were,  all  through  the  nation,  getting  ready 
for  what  was  to  be  a  new  era  in  American  education, 
and  what  proved  to  be  a  new  era  for  the  whole  world. 


PARTY  PLATFORMS  IN  EDUCATION  63 

The  "Teacher  Mind"  had  grasped  a  fundamental 
truth  well  stated  by  George  Santayana/  and,  what  is 
even  better,  had  translated  it  into  a  vigorous  construc- 
tive programme  of  action. 

The  truth,  which  is  at  the  same  time  the  heart  and 
soul  of  experimentalism,  is  that: 

"Systems  of  philosophy  are  the  work  of  individuals. 
Even  when  a  school  is  formed  it  prevails  only  in  certain 
nations  for  a  certain  time,  and  unless  the  expression  of 
dissent  is  suppressed  by  force,  the  dominant  school  even 
then  is  challenged  by  other  schools  no  less  plausible  and 
sincere.  Viewed  from  a  sufficient  distance,  all  systems 
of  philosophy  are  seen  to  be  personal,  temperamental, 
accidental,  and  premature.  They  treat  partial  knowl- 
edge as  if  it  were  total  knowledge;  they  take  peripheral 
facts  for  central  and  typical  facts;  they  confuse  the 
grammar  of  human  expression,  in  language,  logic,  or 
moral  estimation,  with  the  substantial  structure  of 
things.  In  a  word,  they  are  human  heresies."  .  .  . 
"The  background  of  philosophical  systems,  the  ortho- 
doxy round  which  their  heresies  play,  is  no  private  or 
closed  body  of  doctrine.  It  is  merely  the  current  imagi- 
nation and  good  sense  of  mankind — something  tradi- 
tional, conventional,  incoherent,  and  largely  erroneous, 
like  the  assumptions  of  a  man  who  has  never  reflected, 
yet  something  ingenuous,  practically  acceptable,  funda- 
mentally sound,  and  capable  of  correcting  its  own  inno- 
cent errors.  There  is  a  knowledge  which  common  life 
brings  even  to  savages,  and  which  study,  exploration, 
and  the  arts  can  clarify  and  make  more  precise ;  and  this 
all  men  share  in  proportion  to  their  competence  and  in- 

^  See  George  Santayana:  "Philosophical  Heresy,"  Journal  of 
Philosophy,  Psychology,  and  Scientific  Methods,  vol.  XII,  no.  21, 
October  14,  1915,  pp.  561-568. 


64  HIGH  SCHOOL  ADMINISTRATION 

telligence,  no  matter  what  philosophies  or  religions  may 
fill  their  heads  at  the  same  time.  ...  It  lies  (method 
of  becoming  a  philosopher  without  becoming  a  heretic) 
in  confessing  that  a  system  of  philosophy  is  a  personal 
work  of  art  which  gives  a  special  unity  to  some  chance 
vista  in  the  cosmic  labyrinth,  .  .  .  yet  ...  it  should 
substitute  the  pursuit  of  sincerity  for  the  pursuit  of 
omniscience.  .  .  .  We  should  cease  to  hear  of  the  ab- 
solute life  of  thought,  in  which  everything  was  thor- 
oughly significant  and  thoroughly  pathological.  Knowl- 
edge might  really  advance  and  accumulate,  because 
there  would  be  a  world  for  it  to  discover,  and  progress 
might  be  real  Just  because  in  view  of  its  fixed  and  nat- 
ural goal  it  would  not  be  inevitable,  constant,  or  endless. 
The  naturalistic  conception  of  what  philosophy  is  and 
can  be,  of  how  it  strays  and  is  tested,  would  then  be 
restored  by  general  consent,  as,  indeed,  it  should  be; 
for  it  is  the  plain  deliverance  of  a  long  and  general 
experience."^ 

^  See  George  Santayana:  "Philosophical  Heresy,"  Journal  of 
Philosophy,  Psychology,  and  Scientific  Methods,  vol.  XII,  no.  21, 
October  14,  1915,  pp.  561-568. 


HIGH  SCHOOL  TERMINOLOGY  ^ 

With  the  rapidly  growing  literature  of  secondary  edu- 
cation, scientific  investigations  of  its  problems  are  mul- 
tiplying, college  courses  and  text-books  for  these  courses 
are  becoming  more  common,  technical  issues  are  arising, 
and  some  controversies,  such  as  the  one  of  vocational 
education  within  or  independent  of  our  single  system  of 
high  schools,  are  becoming  acute  and  wide-spread.  The 
questions  of  pedagogy,  of  management,  of  administra- 
tion, and  of  supervision  are  complicated  ones.  Even 
the  "fields"  of  secondary  education  are  being  differen- 
tiated. No  longer  may  we  disregard  the  prevailing  con- 
fusion in  usage  of  common  terms. 

At  a  certain  stage  of  development  of  every  well-recog- 
nized division  of  knowledge  vague  terms,  which  suffice 
for  general  surmises  and  prognostications  and  exhorta- 
tions, have  to  be  made  more  precise,  less  ambiguous. 

^  The  terms  below,  with  precise  meanings  given  in  each  case,  were 
presented  at  the  general  session  of  the  National  Commission  on  the 
Reorganization  of  Secondary  Education  at  Richmond,  Va.,  Febru- 
ary 25,  1914.  They  have  also  since  then  been  submitted  for  criti- 
cism to  every  state  superintendent  of  education  in  the  United 
States.  Sixteen  of  these  men,  or  high  school  experts  officially  desig- 
nated by  them  to  represent  the  attitude  of  their  office,  were  kind 
enough  to  send  me  detailed  criticisms  and  suggestions  of  various 
sorts.  Some  of  these  I  have  incorporated,  others  I  have  not  been 
able  to  use,  although  in  every  case  I  have  profited  by  the  good  points 
raised.  Most  of  the  writers  expressed  the  intention  of  adopting  all 
or  a  great  portion  of  the  terms  as  suggested  below.  It  is  hoped  and, 
indeed,  definitely  planned  for  these  formulations  to  bring  to  a  head 
certain  genuine  issues.  The  purpose  is  accomplished  upon  either 
the  definite  acceptance  or  the  definite  rejection  of  the  particular 
terms. 

65 


66  HIGH  SCHOOL  ADMINISTRATION 

Psychology,  for  example,  for  its  own  purposes,  had  to 
make  over  our  common-language  terms,  such  as  "sen- 
sation," "feeling,"  "image,"  and  "perception"  into 
terms  with  specialized  and  unambiguous  yet  simple  con- 
notations. In  no  other  way  could  scientific  investiga- 
tion of  such  mental  processes  and  formulation  of  the 
laws  proceed.  Such,  of  course,  must  be  the  case  with 
the  fundamental  terms  in  the  literature  of  secondary 
education. 

Thus  far  it  has  not  been  quite  disastrous  to  use  inter- 
changeably "vocational"  education  and  "industrial" 
education,  or  "college  preparatory"  and  "cultural"  cur- 
riculums;  but  henceforth  such  distinctions  are  absolutely 
essential.  Otherwise  even  our  statutes  will  continue  to 
have  Uttle  meaning,  or  will  continue  to  be  open  to  sev- 
eral interpretations.  As  it  is,  in  most  recent  legislation 
regarding  vocational  education  we  find  "school,"  "de- 
partment," "curriculum,"  and  "course  of  study"  used 
interchangeably,  or  each  in  different  senses,  and  the  real 
issues  in  question  most  hopelessly  confused. 

In  the  more  general  Hterature  writers  use  the  term 
"curriculum"  in  several  and  "course  of  study"  in  at 
least  three  distinct  senses  in  printed  announcements  of 
"courses  of  study"  and  in  other  school  reports.  The 
collegiate  terms  "department,"  "major,"  "minor,"  and 
"unit"  have  been  vaguely  adopted  in  high  school  litera- 
ture; but  in  the  future,  as  high  school  administration 
and  pedagogy  become  more  securely  based  on  scientific 
studies  of  high  school  problems,  such  terms  must  mean 
in  the  language  on  intercommunication  of  high  schools 
and  colleges  what  they  mean  actually  in  high  school 
practice.  Colleges  think  of  high  school  work  in  terms 
of  their  own  practices  with  reference  to  problems  of 
a  department,  curriculum,  or  major  and  minor.    The 


mCH  SCHOOL  TERMINOLOGY  67 

principles  of  entrance  requirements  will  finally  be  writ- 
ten co-operatively  by  joint  committees  of  high  schools 
and  colleges  after  this  common  language  shall  have 
been  established. 

Again,  "curriculum  thinking"  is  just  coming  into  the 
professional  consciousness  of  high  school  principals  and 
teachers.  This  is  a  sign  of  professional  progress  which 
will  from  now  on  develop  rapidly.  One  reason  for  such 
vagueness  and  confusion  in  usage  of  the  terms  "curricu- 
lum," "course  of  study,"  and  "programme  of  studies," 
as  all  who  study  this  Uterature  now  find  to  be  so  com- 
mon, is  that  there  are  practically  no  genuine  curricu- 
lums,  differentiated  with  reference  to  distinctive  educa- 
tional functioning  of  each  such  organization  of  studies. 
Hence,  looking  only  at  our  present  practice,  we  actually 
cannot  distinguish  in  high  school  administration  between 
programmes  of  study  and  curriculums  (as  defined  below), 
on  the  one  hand,  or  between  genuine  curriculums  and 
certain  arbitrarily  grouped  "allied"  or  sequentially 
related  courses. 

It  is  evident  and  inevitable  that  the  following  system 
of  terminology  contemplates  an  ideal  scheme  for  the 
reorganization  of  the  entire  public-school  system.  The 
following  is  a  dogmatic  sketch  of  its  general  architectural 
features. 

First,  there  would  be  the  kindergarten  of  one  year, 
with  a  plan  of  supervision  of  this  co-ordinately  with  the 
first  grade  of  the  elementary  school  described  below. 
This  ideal  kindergarten  must  by  all  means  retain  all  its 
present  good  features,  and  under  this  proposed  plan  of 
supervision  it  must  also  effect  a  combination  of  those 
good  native  elements  with  those  elements  and  methods 
of  the  Montessori  system  which  can  be  made  adaptable 
to  our  American  children  under  American  conditions. 


68  HIGH  SCHOOL  ADMINISTRATION 

Following  this  we  must  have  an  elementary  school  of 
six  years.  The  primary  purpose  of  this  proposed  na- 
tional unit  must  be  and  will  be  more  succinctly  statable 
in  terms  of  child  Hfe  and  child  nature.  This  smaller 
unit,  for  curriculum  purposes,  will  lend  itself  more 
readily  to  characterization  in  terms  of  educational  values 
and  distinguishable  function.  The  two  distinguishing 
characteristics  will  be  something  like  the  following: 
First,  a  normal  deftly  planned  environment  for  the  pre- 
adolescent  child  to  grow — ^not  memorize — in;  second,  a 
school  whose  secondary  purpose  will  be  to  make  the 
child  in  this  prepubescent  period  a  lover  of  reading;  a 
master  of  the  fundamentals  of  arithmetic,  so  that  these 
naturally  unfatiguing  and  naturally  enjoyable  opera- 
tions will  become  an  automatic  and  dependable  part  of 
his  thinking  (easier  when  we  know  better  how  to  do  it 
and  when  we  have  no  adolescent  problem  in  the  same 
environment  to  confuse  the  issue);  and  one  who  can 
write  legibly — perhaps  typewrite — and  who,  by  a  simpli- 
fied (!)  method,  can  spell  accurately. 

Then  would  come  our  intermediate  or  junior  high 
school  of,  in  most  cases,  three  years.  Here  our  work 
must  resemble  that  of  the  high  school  proper,  but  with 
one  important  difference:  it  must  retain  the  best  gram- 
mar-grades methods,  personalized  instruction,  and  in  no 
case  attempt  more  than  partially  vocationalized  training 
in  its  partially  differentiated  curriculums. 

Following  this  would  come  our  senior  high  school  of 
three,  four,  or  five  more  years,  the  curriculum  extension 
depending  upon  the  size  and  character  of  the  community. 
This  branch  of  the  public-school  system  will  be  the  great 
socializing  and  vocational  as  well  as  the  chief  cultural 
institution  of  our  democracy.  We  are  probably  at  the 
present  time  arriving  at  that  stage  of  our  educational 


HIGH  SCHOOL  TERMINOLOGY  69 

development,  so  far  as  state  systems  of  education  are 
concerned,  when  it  may  be  wise  to  incorporate  into  the 
local  systems,  by  state  financial  encouragement  if  nec- 
essary, the  hundreds  of  struggling  private  colleges  of  the 
country  which,  hampered  by  lack  of  proper  equipment, 
are  doing  at  best  but  a  high  grade  of  the  type  of  work 
contemplated  for  the  senior  high  schools. 

Coupled  with  and  in  some  vital  way  afliliated  with 
this  great  differentiated  public  high  school  system  will 
be  our  national  system  of  school  extension,  including 
part-time  schools  of  every  variety,  continuations  for 
every  class  and  for  every  age,  evening  schools  equipped 
and  administered  as  effectively  as  the  public  day-schools, 
and  vacation  schools,  all-the-year  schools,  to  naturalize 
us  to  national  as  well  as  individual  education  which  has 
no  end  and  should  have  no  end,  and,  when  properly 
adjusted  and  adapted  and  varied,  no  intermittence. 
With  all  this  instructional  and  training  function  of  the 
high  school  thus  extended  it  will  be  but  a  natural  step 
and  an  easy  one  for  the  high  school  to  take  over  from 
the  universities  the  "community-service"  work  of  ele- 
mentary character — which  consumes  the  time  of  expen- 
sive experts  on  university  staffs  now. 

It  will  be  seen  clearly  that  genuine  reorganization  of 
public  education  contemplates  an  educational  condition 
in  which  it  may  be  possible  for  real  universities  to  exist 
independently  of  the  secondary  features  by  which  they 
seek  now,  necessarily,  to  attract  students.  It  is  more 
in  keeping  for  the  high  schools  to  render  service  "di- 
rectly conducive  to  the  general  good,"  as  is  the  prevail- 
ing elementary  university  "extension  service"  of  water 
analysis,  popular  advice  in  sanitary  and  other  forms  of 
engineering,  of  agriculture  and  public  health;  and  "to 
give  instruction  in  the  arts  and  facts  of  civilized  life"; 


70  HIGH  SCHOOL  ADMINISTRATION 

and  leave  the  universities  proper  free  from  these  tem- 
porizing but  laudable  contributions  to  the  ordinary 
needs  of  the  community,  and  by  more  general  assent 
definitely  committed  to  the  cause  of  "the  higher  intel- 
lectual interests  and  strivings  of  mankind." 

Terminology,  left  alone,  reflects  practice.  Refined, 
even  somewhat  arbitrarily,  it  may  serve  to  suggest  a 
better  practice.  With  this  in  mind,  and  in  order  to  pro- 
voke further  discussion  and  criticism,  the  following  com- 
monly used  terms  are  defined: 

"Elementary  education."  The  method  of  elementary 
education  consists  primarily  in  organizing  the  instincts 
and  impulses  of  preadolescent  children  into  working 
tools  and  interests.  It  is  a  process  of  providing  fertile 
experiences  and  exercises  by  means  of  which  the  quali- 
ties of  non-reflective  childhood  may  be  preserved  while 
essential  educational  forms  and  instruments  for  later 
intellectual  use  are  being  systematically  acquired.  In 
subject-matter  elementary  education  utilizes  systems  of 
simplification  and  organization  of  educational  materials 
wholly  without  reference  to  the  logical  principles  which 
determine  the  differentiation  of  the  well-recognized 
fields  of  knowledge  of  the  different  college  subjects  of 
study.  No  quantitative  unit  system  of  evaluation  with 
reference  to  high  school  entrance  requirements  for  this 
elementary  education  is  desirable  or  practicable.  The 
outcome  of  elementary  education  should  be  a  preadoles- 
cent child  with  wholesome  interests,  alert  curiosity, 
free  from  self-consciousness  and  capable  of  communi- 
cating and  of  enjoying  the  expression  of  his  own  expe- 
riences by  means  of  the  school  arts  and  discipHnes  of  the 
elementary  curriculum. 

"Secondary  education"  has  for  its  particular  sphere 
the  general  information  and  training  in  the  facts  and 


raCH  SCHOOL  TERMINOLOGY  71 

arts  of  civilized  life.  It  may  be  roughly  distinguished 
from  elementary  education  as  being  primarily  con- 
cerned, on  the  side  of  subject-matter,  with  the  differen- 
tiated character  of  the  various  subjects  of  instruction, 
and  from  higher  education  by  the  essentially  elementary 
and  general  character  of  these  differentiated  fields  of 
knowledge.  On  the  other  side  of  method  secondary  edu- 
cation may  be  distinguished  from  elementary  in  that  it 
involves  primarily  an  appeal  to  the  pupil's  appreciation, 
judgment,  and  sense  of  relative  values,  and  places  its 
greatest  emphasis  upon  self-revelation  and  trained  indi- 
viduaUty,  rather  than  upon  the  "organization  of  in- 
stincts and  impulses  of  children  into  working  interests 
and  tools,"  the  formal  aspects  and  instruments  of  edu- 
cation. In  method  secondary  education  is  to  be  dis- 
tinguished from  higher  education  in  that  the  former 
wholly  excludes  and  the  latter  only  includes  subjects 
involving  relative  maturity  of  mind  and  of  treatment. 
Higher  education  requires  a  mental  attitude  of  detach- 
ment from  subject-matter,  whereas  in  method  in  secon- 
dary education  the  teacher  must  personally  evaluate 
the  content  of  studies.  One  may  reasonably  expect  as 
the  characteristic  outcome  of  secondary  education  for 
one  group  of  students  the  sustained  interest,  the  impel- 
Hng  motive,  and  the  training  adequate  to  pursue  effec- 
tively work  in  one  or  more  of  the  studies  represented  in 
the  programmes  of  higher  education,  and  for  the  other 
group  the  capacity  for  effective  service  in  a  weU-recog- 
nized  occupation  and  with  an  equally  adequate  capacity 
for  profitable  enjoyment  of  leisure. 

"High  school"  is  that  part  of  the  public-school  sys- 
tem in  which  are  administered  courses  organized  into 
one  or  more  cultural  or  vocational  curriculums  (or  either 
or  both),  entrance  to  which  ordinarily  presupposes  the 


72  HIGH  SCHOOL  ADMINISTRATION 

completion  of  an  elementary  curriculum  of  six,  seven, 
eight,  or  nine  years,  or  which  may  have  for  entrance 
requirements,  instead  of  such  scholastic  standards,  the 
equivalents  in  age,  maturity  of  development,  and  voca- 
tional needs  of  entering  pupils.  A  high  school  may 
extend  its  courses  and  its  curriculums  over  periods  of 
four,  five,  six,  seven,  or  eight  years.  The  existence  of 
a  high  school  implies  in  any  case  pupils,  teachers,  and 
courses  organized  into  one  or  more  curriculums,  and  an 
institution  whose  internal  government  and  administra- 
tion is  distinct  from  and  co-ordinate  with  that  of  the 
elementary  school  embracing  the  first  six  years. 

"Junior  high  school"  is  that  portion  of  the  public- 
school  work  above  the  6th  elementary  grade,  including 
the  7th  and  8th,  or  the  7th,  8th,  and  9th  grades,  which 
is  organized  under  a  distinctive  internal  management 
with  a  special  principal  and  teacher,  and  which  provides 
for  departmental  teaching,  partially  differentiated  cur- 
riculums, prevocational  instruction,  and  a  system  of 
educational  advice  and  guidance.^ 

"Senior  high  school"  is  that  portion  of  the  public- 
school  work  above  the  9th  grade  which  is  organized 
under  a  distinctive  internal  management  of  special 
principal  and  teacher,  and  which  includes  in  its  curricu- 
lums instruction  covering  three,  four,  or  five  years  be- 
yond the  junior  high  school,  and  whose  minimum  re- 

^  There  is  in  every  state  a  large  number  of  school  systems  in 
which  one  or  more  years  of  high  school  instruction  of  an  academic 
character  is  added  to  the  grade  work.  These  grade  extensions 
should  not  be  called  high  schools.  We  might  possibly  call  them 
"partial  high  schools"  or  "grade  extension  schools"  or  "incomplete 
high  schools."  They  should  not  be  called  junior  high  schools,  as 
they  have  not  the  requisite  administrative  and  pedagogical  distinc- 
tiveness. In  the  event  of  finding  no  suitable  generic  term  we  may 
call  them  simply  one-year,  two-year,  or  three-year  high  schools,  or 
perhaps  nine-grade,  ten-grade,  or  eleven-grade  schools. 


HIGH  SCHOOL  TERMINOLOGY  73 

quirement  for  graduation  is  the  completion  of  courses  to 
the  amount  of  fifteen  credit  units  above  the  8th  grade. 
"Junior  college"  is  that  portion  of  the  pubHc-school 
work  which  embraces  the  years  and  courses  of  instruc- 
tion beyond  the  12  th  grade,  and  which  may  be  con- 
sidered as  equivalent  to  the  corresponding  work  on  the 
first  two  years  of  a  standardized  college  curriculum. 

KINDS   OF  HIGH   SCHOOL  EDUCATION 

Only  rough  and  arbitrary  distinctions  may  be  made 
between  general  and  special,  or  vocational  education. 
These  distinctions  have  for  the  present  purpose  only 
administrative,  not  pedagogical,  value.  Educationally 
at  every  point  any  particular  "course"  has  both  ele- 
ments which  blend  into  each  other.  "Curriculums," 
however,  must  be  constructed  with  some  dominating 
emphasis  upon  a  distinguishing  purpose. 

"General  education"  (for  this  administrative  purpose) 
is  education  in  which  the  dominating  emphasis  is  placed 
upon  equipping  the  individual  for  effective  participation 
in  the  aesthetic,  intellectual,  and  other  cultural  activities 
of  civilized  Hfe,  and  for  the  appreciation  of  the  products 
of  such  activities,  and  which  is  deliberately  planned 
with  reference  to  the  postponement  of  any  specialized 
training  or  information  bearing  upon  the  particular 
duties  and  opportunities  of  a  recognized  vocation. 

"Vocational  education"^  (for  this  administrative  pur- 

^  This  group  of  definitions  represents  an  attempt  to  modify,  sup- 
plement, and  adapt  some  of  the  terms  recently  embodied  in  legisla- 
tive enactments  concerning  vocational  education  in  Massachusetts, 
Indiana,  Pennsylvania,  and  several  other  states.  The  chief  differ- 
ence is  that  on  the  present  basis  vocational  education  is  made  broad 
enough  to  include,  in  addition  to  the  types  of  training  referred  to 
in  the  above  statutes,  commercial  curriculums,  and  teacher-training 
curriculums — equally  as  important,  truly  as  vocational  in  character, 
and  as  clearly  demartded  of  high  schools. 


74  HIGH  SCHOOL  ADMINISTRATION 

pose)  is  any  education  the  immediate  and  definite  pur- 
pose of  which  is  to  fit  for  profitable  employment  by  pro- 
viding special  training  or  skill  in  and  information  con- 
cerning a  given  vocation. 

" Prevocational  education"  includes  all  the  instruc- 
tion and  training  of  the  years  immediately  following  the 
first  six  years  of  elementary  education,  which  may  be 
distinguished  from  the  general,  or  academic,  education 
of  these  same  years  by  the  fact  that  in  content  and 
method  it  is  designed  to  prepare  the  pupils  for  carrying 
on  the  operations  and  processes  both  of  intelligence  and 
of  manual  skills  common  to  groups  of  fundamental 
vocations.  It  is  distinguished  from  "vocational  educa- 
tion" in  the  necessary  limitations  in  definiteness  and 
completeness  of  its  special  trainings  and  in  the  fact  that 
it  is  only  a  partially  differentiated  scheme  of  training. 

"Industrial  education"  is,  in  any  instance,  that  form 
of  vocational  education  which  is  designed  to  fit  for  a 
particular  trade,  craft,  or  other  wage-earning  pursuit, 
including  the  occupation  of  girls  and  women  carried  on 
in  stores,  workshops,  and  other  establishments,  but  ex- 
cluding household  service. 

"Agricultural  education"  is  that  form  of  vocational 
education  which  is  designed  to  fit  for  the  vocations  con- 
nected with  the  tillage  of  the  soil,  the  care  of  domestic 
animals,  forestry,  and  other  wage-earning  or  productive 
work  on  the  farm. 

"Domestic  education"  is  that  form  of  vocational  edu- 
cation which  is  designed  to  fit  for  vocations  connected 
with  the  household,  such  as  sewing,  millinery,  dress- 
making, or  nursing. 

"Commercial  education"  is  that  form  of  vocational 
education  which  is  designed  to  fit  for  any  kind  of  clerical 
duty  connected  with  the  operation  of  commercial  estab- 


HIGH  SCHOOL  TERMINOLOGY  75 

lishments,  such  as  bookkeeping,  stenography  and  type- 
writing, and  clerkships;  and  also  any  form  of  education 
of  the  same  years  which  is  designed  to  equip  pupils  for 
secretarial  positions,  or  to  become  salesmen,  business 
directors,  or  general  transactors  of  business  on  their 
own  account. 

"Teacher-training  education"  in  "high  schools"  is 
that  form  of  vocational  education  which  is  designed  to 
fit  for  the  profession  of  teaching  and  classroom  manage- 
ment in  rural  schools,  and  which,  furthermore,  is  defi- 
nitely planned  for  that  group  of  high  school  pupils  who 
plan  to  teach  immediately  upon  graduation. 

"Independent  industrial,  agricultural,  domestic,  or 
teacher- training  high  school"^  is  an  organization  of 
pupils,  teachers,  and  correlated  courses  designed  pri- 
marily to  provide  industrial,  agricultural,  domestic, 
commercial,  or  teacher-training  education,  and  which  is 
administered  by  a  distinctive  management,  independent 
of  the  management  of  the  high  school. 

"Industrial,  agricultural,  domestic,  commercial,  or 
teacher- training  curriculum"  is  in  each  instance  courses 
of  secondary  grade  and  character  organized  and  clearly 
designed  for  the  vocational  needs  of  a  particular  group 
of  high  school  pupils,  but  administered  and  supervised 
by  the  same  management  that  administers  the  "general" 
curriculum  of  the  high  school. 

"Evening  class"  is  an  independent  industrial,  agricul- 
tural, domestic,  commercial,  or  teacher-training  high 
school,  or  in  any  of  these  curriculums  of  a  high  school  is 
a  class  receiving  such  training  as  can  be  taken  by  per- 

^  This  type  of  public  high  school  (which  does  not  exist  in  the 
United  States)  is  here  defined  so  as  to  bring  out  clearly  a  legislative 
issue  now  critical  in  some  states.  The  paragraph  should  be  con- 
trasted with  the  one  immediately  following,  which  describes  more 
nearly  the  existing  state  types  of  high  schools. 


76  HIGH  SCHOOL  ADMINISTRATION 

sons  already  employed  during  the  working-day.  This  in- 
struction may  be  general,  or  it  may  deal  with  the  subject- 
matter  of  the  day  employment  and  be  so  carried  on  as  to 
relate  to  the  day's  employment,  or  it  may  be  training  de- 
signed to  equip  the  individual  for  a  different  kind  of  occu- 
pation from  the  one  in  which  he  at  the  time  is  engaged. 

"Part-time  class"  is  an  independent  industrial,  agri- 
cultural, domestic,  commercial,  or  teacher-training  high 
school,  or  in  any  such  curriculum  in  a  high  school  is  a 
vocational  or  general  class  for  persons  giving  a  part  of 
their  working  time  to  profitable  employment  and  re- 
ceiving instruction  complementary  to  the  practical  work 
carried  on  in  such  employment.  Such  persons  must 
give  a  part  of  each  working  day,  week,  or  longer  period 
to  the  part-time  class  work  during  the  period  in  which 
it  is  in  session. 

"Continuation  school"  (besides  including  the  types  of 
education  of  "evening  class"  and  of  "part-time")  refers 
also  to  any  courses  of  "general"  as  distinguished  from 
"vocational"  character  which  may  be  offered  by  pub- 
licly employed  school  officers  and  teachers  to  persons 
not  enrolled  as  pupils  in  the  day  high  school,  nor  in  in- 
dependent vocational  schools  as  defined  above. 

TEEMINOLOGY  FOR  INTERNAL  ADMINISTRATION  AND 
SUPERVISION   or  HIGH   SCHOOLS^ 

"Programme  of  studies"  refers  to  all  the  high  school 
subjects  offered  in  a  given  school  without  reference  to 

^  The  terms  "programme  of  studies,"  "curriculum,"  and  "course 
of  study"  have  been  defined  by  the  Committee  on  College  Entrance 
Requirements  (Report,  p.  42).  With  the  change  of  "course  of 
study"  to  "course,"  thus  avoiding  the  natural  and  frequent  con- 
fusion of  the  term  with  "curriculum,"  and  with  modifications  in 
phraseology  and  some  further  restrictions  in  connotations,  the  gen- 
eral distinction  approved  by  this  committee  with  reference  to  these 
two  items  has  been  here  preserved. 


HIGH  SCHOOL  TERMINOLOGY  77 

any  principle  of  organizing  these  subjects  and  courses 
into  curriculums. 

"Schedule  of  classes"  is  the  daily  and  weekly  arrange- 
ment of  classes  showing  the  time  of  day,  place,  and  fre- 
quency of  meeting,  and  the  instructor  in  charge  of  the 
course. 

"Curriculum"  (course  of  study)  is  any  systematic 
and  schematic  arrangement  of  courses  which  extends 
through  a  number  of  years  and  which  is  planned  for 
any  clearly  differentiated  group  of  pupils.  Administra- 
tively a  "curriculum"  represents  an  arrangement  of 
courses  within  which  a  student  is  restricted  in  his  choice 
of  work  leading  to  graduation. 

"General  curriculum"  is  a  curriculum  designed  pri- 
marily to  meet  the  general  and  later  professional  needs 
of  a  group  of  pupils  who  choose  definitely  to  postpone 
their  special  preparation  for  a  particular  vocation. 

"Vocational  curriculum"  is  a  curriculum  designed  to 
meet  the  needs  of  a  group  of  pupils  who  are  to  enter 
unmediately  a  recognized  vocation. 

"Allied  group "^  of  "courses"  refers  to  studies  whose 
subject-matter  is  closely  related,  as,  for  example,  two 
or  more  courses  in  physical  science  or  biological  science 
or  agriculture  or  language.  "Allied  group"  of  "high 
school  subjects"  suggests  such  large  combinations  (often 
helpful  in  the  administration  of  group  requirements, 
majors  and  minors,  and  as  a  guide  in  the  assignment  of 
work  to  teachers)  as  the  sciences,  the  humanities,  the 
fine  arts,  and  the  practical  arts. 

"Sequential  group"  of  courses  refers  to  courses  in  a 

1  As  there  are  few  distinctive  curriculum  differentiations  as  yet  in 
high  schools  of  any  kind,  and  many  partial  curriculums,  "allied 
group"  and  "sequential  group"  of  courses  are  useful  descriptive 
terms  for  this  transition  period  in  the  evolution  of  high  school  cur- 
riculums, and  are  here  defined. 


78  HIGH  SCHOOL  ADMINISTRATION 

given  high  school  subject  or  in  closely  related  high 
school  subjects  which  are  planned  for  certain  pupil 
groups  that  are  to  continue  electing  courses  within  this 
group  through  several  different  "school  classes."  These 
courses  are  so  administered  and  taught  that,  because  of 
the  logical  relationships,  graded  difficulty,  and  partial 
curriculum  purpose,  each  course  in  the  group  implies 
the  next,  credits  for  any  often  being  contingent  upon 
completion  of  the  group. 

"Department"  in  high  school  work  is  any  admin- 
istrative unit  in  the  assignment  of  subjects,  of  allied 
groups  of  subjects,  or  of  courses  to  teachers. 

"School  subject"  refers  to  any  one  of  the  well-recog- 
nized divisions  of  knowledge,  one  or  more  courses  or 
half-courses  in  which  are  offered  in  the  prograrmne  of 
studies,  such  as  history  or  German. 

"Course"  is  the  quantity,  kind,  and  organization  of 
subject-matter  of  instruction  in  any  high  school  subject, 
offered  within  a  definite  period  of  time  for  which  a  credit 
unit  or  a  fraction  of  a  credit  unit  toward  graduation  is 
granted,  as  second-year  Latin  or  first-year  algebra. 

"General  course"  is  a  course  which  equips  an  individ- 
ual for  his  future  duties  and  opportunities  without  defi- 
nite reference  to  those  connected  with  his  special  voca- 
tion. 

"Vocational  course"  is  a  course  which  equips  an  indi- 
vidual with  the  specific  skills  and  insights  peculiar  and 
essential  to  his  chosen  vocation. 

"Credit  unit"  represents  a  year's  study  in  any  high 
school  subject  constituting  approximately  a  quarter  of  a 
full  year's  work  of  a  high  school  pupil.  With  a  four- 
year  high  school  curriculum  as  a  basis  a  school  year's 
work  of  from  thirty-six  to  forty  weeks  is  assumed,  and 
it  is  further  assumed  that  a  school  year's  work  in  any 


fflGH  SCHOOL  TERMINOLOGY  79 

subject  will  approximate  120  sixty-minute  periods,  and 
that  any  course  will  be  pursued  for  four  or  five  periods 
per  week. 

"Extra  credit"  represents  the  satisfactory  completion 
of  those  additional  requirements  for  graduation  for 
which  "credit  units"  are  not  granted,  as,  for  example, 
is  often  the  case  with  vocal  music,  gymnasium  work,  or 
handwriting. 

"Outside  credits"  refers  to  the  official  school  recogni- 
tion of  work  done  by  pupils  outside  the  school-building 
and  out  of  school  hours. 

"Unit  of  instruction"  applies  to  those  relatively  lim- 
ited number  of  larger  and  more  important  topic  divi- 
sions (fundamental  as  distinguished  from  accessory  toj>- 
ics)  into  which  the  subject-matter  of  a  given  course  may 
be  broken  up.  These  "units  of  instruction"  usually 
represent  divisions  of  the  course  whose  treatment  ex- 
tends over  a  half-dozen  or  a  dozen  or  even  more  class 
periods,  depending  partly  upon  the  character  of  the  sub- 
ject-matter itself  and  partly  upon  the  individual  teach- 
er's preference.^ 

"Graduation"  means  ordinarily  the  completion  of 
courses  to  the  amount  of  fifteen  credit  units  beyond  the 
8th  grade  and  the  fulfilment  of  all  other  requirements 
relating  to  standards  of  scholarship,  observance  of 
school  discipline  and  standards  of  moraHty  generally. 

"School  year"  is  the  normal  time  required  for  the 
completion  of  the  courses  amounting  to  four  credit  units 
or  their  equivalent. 

"Class  period"  means  the  time,  varying  from  40  to 

*  This  unit  of  instruction,  generally  a  larger  division  of  school 
work  than  the  recitation  and  smaller  than  the  course,  is  both  an 
administrative  and  a  pedagogical  unit,  and  should  in  every  case  be 
determined  beforehand  through  co-operation  of  teacher  and  super- 
visor. 


80  HIGH   SCHOOL  ADMINISTRATION 

1 20  minutes,  spent  continuously  upon  one  course  under 
the  teacher's  active  supervision  in  classroom  work. 

"Subject  class"  means  any  group  of  pupils  who  recite 
or  in  any  other  way  work  together  co-operatively  during 
a  class  period  upon  any  high  school  subject  under  the 
immediate  direction  of  a  class  teacher. 

SYSTEMS   OF  ADMINISTERING  COURSES 

"Elective  system"  is  the  plan  of  administering  the 
choice  of  subjects  and  courses  whereby  each  pupil  indi- 
vidually may  receive  from  the  principal  or  a  designated 
teacher  guidance  in  his  selection  of  courses,  but  may  not 
be  restricted  in  this  selection, 

"Group  system"  is  the  plan  of  administration  of 
pupils'  choices  of  subjects  and  courses  which  places 
restrictions  upon  these  elections  of  courses,  generally 
making  selections  contingent  upon  the  remainder  of  the 
work  planned  for  the  given  school  year  or  other  years, 
these  prescriptions  and  alternatives  being  pointed  out  in 
the  schedule  of  classes  or  otherwise  by  some  system  of 
advice  and  guidance  made  clear  to  the  students.  As 
with  the  elective  system,  the  group  system  allows  for 
individual  combination  courses. 

"Curriculum  system"  implies  the  organization  of 
courses  into  distinctive  curriculums  definitely  planned 
with  reference,  not  to  each  individual's  personal  needs 
primarily,  but  with  reference  to  the  different  educational 
requirements  of  special  groups  of  pupils,  curriculums 
based  upon  social  as  well  as  upon  psychological  consid- 
erations. This  system  emphasizes  chiefly  the  election 
of  curriculums  only,  allowing  some  leeway  within  each 
curriculum,  but  allowing  for  the  time  little  freedom  for 
individual  choice  of  studies  belonging  to  other  curricu- 
lums than  the  one  to  which  the  pupil  has  been  assigned. 


HIGH  SCHOOL  TERMINOLOGY  81 

"High  school  major"  means  three  credit  units  done 
in  sequence  in  any  high  school  subject,  as  English,  Latin, 
German,  history,  mathematics;  or  three  credit  units  in 
some  "allied  group,"  such  as  physical  science,  biological 
science,  social  science,  manual  training,  household  arts, 
or  fine  arts. 

"High  school  minor"  means  two  credit  units  of  work 
similar  in  character  to  that  described  for  a  major. 

"Pupil"  rather  than  "student"  or  "scholar"  desig- 
nates boys  and  girls  enrolled  in  elementary  and  high 
schools. 

"School  class"  refers  to  that  group  of  high  school 
pupils  whose  school  status,  based  upon  their  school 
marks  and  promotion  records,  is  officially  defined  with 
reference  to  their  year  of  graduation,  as  senior  class. 

"Grade"  (with  the  year  9th,  loth,  etc.,  attached),  as 
loth  grade,  is  used  to  distinguish  the  "school  class"  of 
high  school  pupils,  rather  than  "freshman,"  "sopho- 
more," "junior,"  and  "senior." 

"Marks"  (not  "grades")  means  the  qualitative  esti- 
mates of  the  pupil's  work  in  courses  which  constitute 
the  official  school  record. 

"Honorable  dismissal"^  refers  to  conduct  and  charac- 
ter only,  and  is  never  to  be  given  unless  the  pupil's 
standing  as  to  conduct  and  character  is  such  as  to  en- 
title him  to  continuance  in  the  school  granting  the  dis- 
missal. In  this  statement  full  mention  should  also  be 
made  of  any  probation,  suspension,  or  other  temporary 
restriction  imposed  for  bad  conduct,  the  period  of  which 

^  The  definitions  of  these  last  two  terms  are  adaptations  of  reso- 
lutions adopted  by  the  sixth  conference  of  the  National  Conference 
Committee  on  Standards  of  Colleges  and  Secondary  Schools,  Feb- 
ruary 19,  1913,  as  is,  substantially,  the  definition  of  "credit  unit" 
given  above. 


82  HIGH  SCHOOL  ADMINISTRATION 

restriction  is  not  over  when  the  papers  of  dismissal  are 
issued. 

"Statement  of  record"  refers  to  the  recorded  results 
of  a  pupil's  work  in  the  classroom,  and  in  every  instance 
contains  all  the  important  facts  pertaining  to  the  pupil's 
admission,  classification,  and  scholarship. 

EXPLANATORY  COMMENTS   ON  THE   TERMINOLOGY 
DEFINITIONS 

All  the  terms,  with  the  obvious  exceptions,  "secon- 
dary education"  and  "unit  of  instruction,"  are  defined 
in  an  administrative  sense  and  do  not  have  primarily 
pedagogical  distinctions  in  view.  Apologies  are  frankly 
offered  for  venturing  to  define  secondary  education 
qualitatively.  It  seemed  necessary  to  preface  the  other 
terms  with  some  such  rough  characterization  of  the 
field. 

"High  school"  is  defined  above  broadly  so  as  to  in^ 
elude  all  education  of  public  character  which  may  be  of 
secondary  grade,  whether  vocational  or  general,  com- 
posite or  special,  junior  or  senior.^ 

"General"  and  "vocational"  education,  having  refer- 
ence to  curriculum  education  and  not  to  the  character 
of  any  isolated  course  or  subject,  are  distinguished  pri- 
marily as  to  immediate  purpose,  the  former  offered 
mainly  for  those  (about  one-fourth  of  the  high  school 

^  One  state  superintendent  writes:  "I  approve  of  all  your  terms 
except  your  too  broad  definition  of  high  school.  It  seems  to  me 
we  should  limit  the  term  high  school  to  the  institution  that  has  been 
so  long  regarded  as  the  standard,  based  upon  an  eight-year  elemen- 
tary course  and  lasting  four  years." 

On  the  contrary,  I  have  here  taken  the  position  that  nobody  does 
right  now  know  how  to  characterize  the  "standard  institution,"  and 
that  the  term  "high  school"  may  now  well  become  a  generic  term, 
as  "college"  to  an  extent  has  become  in  the  literature  of  university 
catalogues. 


HIGH  SCHOOL  TERMINOLOGY  83 

enrolment)  who  have  expectations  of  further  education 
of  more  advanced  grade;  the  latter  offered  for  those  who 
either  before  or  upon  high  school  graduation  definitely 
plan  to  engage  in  some  wage-earning  pursuit,  and  also 
offered  to  attract  still  others  who  are  not  enrolled  at  all. 
There  is  no  implication  here  that  general  education  has 
no  vocational  value,  algebra,  for  example,  nor  that  voca- 
tional education  has  no  cultural  value,  an  agricultural 
curriculimi,  for  example;  but  that  in  a  curriculum  with 
the  former  as  its  emphasis  the  pupil  is  clearly  postpon- 
ing specific  vocational  training,  and  in  the  latter  type 
of  curriculum  he  is  consciously  preparing  to  enter  imme- 
diately upon  it. 

The  various  kinds  of  vocational  education  of  secon- 
dary grade  are  defined  so  as  to  represent  them  as  equally 
vocational  and  as  thus  co-ordinate  in  function.  Enrol- 
ments in  these  curriculums  reported  in  Bulletin  No.  22 
for  191 2  of  U.  S.  Bureau  of  Education  justify  also  this 
co-ordinate  ranking.  An  examination  of  several  hun- 
dred printed  high  school  "courses  of  study,"  "curricu- 
lums" according  to  our  proposed  terminology,  seems  to 
indicate  the  prevailing  tendency  of  large  high  schools  to 
organize  their  programmes  of  study  into  substantially 
the  five  curriculums  defined  above,  although  there  are 
more  than  five  terms  for  the  correlated  instruction 
offered. 

The  terms  distinguishing  between  "independent  voca- 
tional schools"  and  the  same  kind  of  education  in  the 
form  of  a  vocational  curriculum  in  a  high  school  of  the 
standard  type  are  so  defined  as  to  make  clear  the  differ- 
ence between  the  prevailing  "single  system"  of  high 
schools  and  the  proposed  "dual  system"  seriously  advo- 
cated in  some  states.  Even  the  legal  terminology  thus 
far  of  the  different  states  that  have  passed  legislation  is 


84  HIGH   SCHOOL  ADMINISTRATION 

confusing  on  this  point.  In  many  educational  discus- 
sions the  administrative  and  the  pedagogical  issues  in- 
volved are  anything  but  clear.  The  average  layman, 
for  example,  identifying  high  school  with  the  general 
curriculum,  will  not  think  of  other  possible  curriculums 
for  the  same  high  school.  He  will  naturally  think  that 
a  new  kind  of  school  must  come  into  existence  for  the 
new  function.  Seeing  the  contrasting  pedagogical  func- 
tions of  the  two  kinds  of  instruction  proposed,  he  as- 
sumes that  with  this  difference  must  exist  also  the  ad- 
ministrative distinction — in  short,  that  different  schools 
must  be  administered.  The  terminology  items  seek  to 
show  the  equal  possibility  of  thinking  the  two  kinds  of 
curriculums,  general  and  vocational,  within  or  without 
the  present  system  of  public  schools,  while  admitting  in 
either  case  their  pedagogical  distinctiveness.  In  other 
words,  they  seek  to  avoid  the  confusion  of  using  "school" 
and  "department"  or  "curriculum"  or  "division"  as 
identical  or  equivalent. 

The  terms  relating  to  matters  of  internal  school  man- 
agement, supervision,  and  especially  reporting  and  for- 
mulating of  policies,  are  proposed  with  a  view  to  clear- 
ing up  a  certain  evident  confusion  in  the  minds  of  many 
high  school  principals.  It  should  be  noted  that  "sub- 
ject class"  and  "school  period"  are  here  so  defined  as 
to  refer  either  to  the  old  "recitation"  type  of  class- 
meeting,  or  to  the  laboratory  period,  or  to  the  class 
period  (single  or  double)  in  which  a  good  portion  of  the 
time  may  be  devoted  to  supervised  study  or  other  par- 
tial substitutes  for  this  traditional  activity  of  formal 
reciting.  It  might  be  a  good  thing,  perhaps,  to  drop 
the  term  "recitation"  altogether. 

The  assumption  in  defining  "curriculum"  is  that 
eventually  every  high  school  will  design  and  administer 


HIGH  SCHOOL  TERMINOLOGY  85 

some  genuine  curriculum,  the  small  high  school  often 
only  one,  the  large  high  school  many,  and  different 
types  of  large  high  schools  different  sets  of  curriculums. 
It  is  clear  here  that  the  proposed  connotation  and  usage 
of  this  term  and  of  the  term  "course"  below  will  cause, 
at  first,  great  inconvenience,  as  the  custom  is  wide- 
spread in  all  circles  to  use  "course  of  study"  in  the 
fourfold  sense  of  "programme  of  studies,"  "curricu- 
lum," "high  school  subject,"  and  also  of  "course."  We 
are  Just  entering,  as  is  pointed  out  above,  an  era  of  cur- 
riculiun  building,  curriculum  thinking,  and  curriculum 
controversy.  It  is  a  critical  period  in  high  school  de- 
velopment. Proponents  of  general  and  of  vocational 
high  school  education  often  do  not  understand  each 
other.  College  and  university  faculties  do  not  under- 
stand the  demands  of  high  school  principals  with  refer- 
ence to  entrance  requirements;  and  these  principals  do 
not  understand  the  conclusions  to  which  these  faculties 
come  in  their  academic  discussions  of  this  question.  If 
"curriculum,"  "high  school  department,"  "course  of 
study,"  "high  school  major"  or  "minor"  and  other 
such  terms,  reflecting  clearly  actual  school  practice, 
should  mean  approximately  the  same  thing  in  our 
printed  catalogues  and  other  educational  literature,  and 
if  our  educational  journals  could  all  adopt  this  elemen- 
tary framework  for  necessary  discussions  of  these  funda- 
mental issues,  it  is  more  likely  that  we  should  get  some- 
where in  our  teachers'  association  meetings  and  local 
conferences,  and  get  further  in  our  practice  and  in  the 
institutional  co-operation  of  school  and  college. 

The  term  "department"  here  is  temporarily  rescued 
from  its  ambiguous  use  in  certain  legislation  on  voca- 
tional education,  and  is  adopted  to  call  attention  to  the 
fact  that  it  is  an  administrative  unit,  and  that  its  mean- 


86  HIGH  SCHOOL  ADMINISTRATION 

ing  in  high  school  administration,  from  the  nature 
of  secondary  education,  must,  as  with  "major"  and 
"minor,"  convey  a  meaning  quite  different  from  "col- 
lege departmentalism,"  certainly  in  the  large  majority 
of  high  schools. 

An  "extra  credit"  has  reference  entirely  to  high 
school  graduation,  a  "credit  unit"  refers  to  the  evalua- 
tion of  high  school  work  by  higher  institutions.  High 
school  graduation  and  college  entrance  standards  may 
or  may  not  be  identical.  The  very  difficult  questions  of 
the  "unit"  and  "credit  unit"  values  of  the  9th  and 
loth  grade  work,  as  compared  with  the  nth  and  12th 
grade,  or  of  the  effect  upon  unit  value  of  work  done  in 
"allied"  subjects  upon  a  credit  unit  in  a  given  subject 
in  this  group  or  of  the  different  "unit"  and  "credit 
unit"  values  of  different  quaHties  of  work  (as  designated 
by  "marks")  can,  in  these  preliminary  suggestions,  be 
barely  mentioned  as  a  problem  later  to  face. 

"Units  of  instruction"  is  introduced  and  so  defined  as 
to  give,  through  official  recognition  and  sanction,  some 
basis  for  high  school  classroom  supervision.  If  teacher 
and  supervisor  are  essentially  in  agreement  as  to  "units 
of  instruction,"  supervision  of  teaching  becomes  possi- 
ble. This  evaluation  of  subject-matter  of  courses  in 
terms  of  class  period  time  is  one  of  the  first  steps  toward 
standardization  of  high  school  courses.  This  "unit  of 
instruction"  is  defined  at  the  risk  of  introducing  confu- 
sion because  of  the  great  need  that  the  attention  of 
schoolmen  be  drawn  to  the  supervisory  practice  it  sug- 
gests. The  suggestion  should  not  be  interpreted  as  ad- 
vocating necessarily  the  same  units  of  instruction  and 
time  values  for  different  teachers  of  the  same  course. 
It  merely  means  that  no  course  should  be  conducted  in 
disregard  of  this  principle. 


fflGH  SCHOOL  TERMINOLOGY  87 

Several  of  my  co-operating  critics  among  the  state 
superintendents  do  not  wish  to  restrict  "graduation" 
to  the  completion  of  fifteen  units.  They  think  those 
completing  work  in  two  and  three  year  high  schools 
should  be  allowed  to  ''graduate."  This  paper,  notwith- 
standing, advocates  the  restriction  suggested  in  the  defi- 
nition above,  even  in  case  the  "junior  high  school" 
should  become  an  established  feature. 

The  cormnon  confusion  from  interchange  of  usage  of 
"marks"  and  "grades"  is  familiar  to  all  schoolmen. 
The  usage  suggested  is  proposed  as  a  corrective. 

"Pupils"  rather  than  "student"  or  "scholar"  seems 
to  be  the  decided  preference  of  the  large  majority  of 
high  school  principals  and  teachers  as  the  characterizing 
term  to  apply  to  their  charges,  and  is,  therefore,  here 
recommended. 

Attention  may  well  be  called  to  the  attempt  to  de- 
scribe "commercial  education"  in  broader  and  more 
liberal  terms.  It  is  noteworthy  that  many  state  super- 
intendents independently  comment  upon  the  necessity 
of  dignifying  and  also  differentiating  curriculums  sup- 
plying training  for  different  business  occupations.  It 
should  be  realized,  also,  that  "  teacher- training  educa- 
tion" in  high  schools  is  a  fact,  with  state  laws  authoriz- 
ing its  support  in  a  good  number  of  states — not  a  theory 
about  the  functions  of  high  schools.  This  revolutionary 
measure  bids  fair,  if  it  is  more  than  a  temporary  make- 
shift in  teacher  training,  to  revolutionize  the  high  schools 
in  extent  of  years  of  schooling  as  well  as  in  character  of 
instruction  and  "setting"  in  a  state  system  of  education. 

There  is  a  feature  of  the  definition  of  "evening  class" 
which  represents  an  attempt  to  improve  upon  what  ap- 
pears to  be  a  blunder  in  the  formation  of  recent  laws 
relating  to  vocational  education  in  Indiana,  Massachu- 


88  HIGH  SCHOOL  ADMINISTRATION 

setts,  and  other  states,  in  that  the  character  of  instruc- 
tion offered  in  such  publicly  supported  education  need 
not  necessarily  be  restricted  in  subject-matter  to  that 
dealt  with  in  the  day  employment,  a  law  which  is  work- 
ing injustice  already  and  which  is  defeating  the  voca- 
tional interests  it  was  framed  to  foster.  The  phrase 
"course  of  study"  is  dropped,  as  it  now  frequently 
enjoys  the  three  usages  recommended  in  turn  for  pro- 
gramme of  studies,  curriculum,  and  course  as  noted 
above. 

The  writer  suggests  these  restricted  uses  for  the  above 
terms  partly  because  he  believes  they  are  in  the  main 
correct  and  that  they  will  clear  up  certain  obscure  but 
important  current  issues  in  high  school  administration. 
The  chief  reason  for  offering  them,  however,  is  to  arouse 
discussion  and  to  receive  suggestions.  Any  criticisms, 
suggested  additions  to  the  Hst  or  suggested  omissions, 
will  be  seriously  considered  in  the  hope  that  eventually 
some  definite  proposals  may  be  made  to  different  educa- 
tional associations  and  journals,  by  the  adoption  of 
which  they  may  contribute  also  to  clearness  in  educa- 
tional thinking,  so  far,  at  any  rate,  as  it  is  concerned 
with  the  administration  and  supervision  of  secondary 
education. 


THE  HIGH  SCHOOL  ISSUE 

(Current  high  school  developments  disclose  many  "issues."  The 
movements  looking  toward  providing  federal  and  state  aid  for  types 
of  secondary  education  have  made  most  prominent  the  fundamental 
issue  of  whether  or  not  our  prevailing  system  of  secondary  education 
can  provide  adequately  all  the  kinds  of  education  of  this  grade  that 
society  requires.  This  situation,  involving  as  it  does  the  most  pro- 
found educational  questions,  has,  in  the  opinion  of  many,  received 
too  hasty  legislative  consideration.  The  method  of  this  presenta- 
tion (with  apologies  to  Plato  and  Berkeley)  is  to  discuss  more  vividly 
than  mere  abstract  exposition  will  allow  some  considerations  which 
should  serve  as  guiding  principles.  The  well-known  Cooley  Bill  for 
Illinois  contemplates  a  "dual"  system  of  public  secondary  educa- 
tion for  the  "vocational"  and  for  the  "non-vocational"  pupils  after 
they  have  completed  the  elementary  school  or  have  reached  the 
maturity  of  fourteen  years  of  age.  It  therefore  serves  to  raise  the 
very  vital  question  of  proper  instructional  and  training  functions 
of  our  existing  public  high  schools. 

The  persons  of  the  present  dialogue  talk  as  they  have  talked  in 
print.  In  many  cases  the  actual  phrases  are  re-employed  here. 
The  author  pleads  "poetic  license"  in  case  the  authors  disclaim 
this  very  literal  application  of  their  educational  doctrines  to  the 
high  school.  Aside  from  this  special  application,  he  thinks  he  has 
not  misrepresented  their  several  educational  philosophies,  references 
to  which  are  clearly  indicated  in  the  foot-notes. — Author.) 

PERSONS   OF   THE  DIALOGUE 

Members  of  the  Educational  Committee  of  the  State 

Legislature. 
Chairman  and  Members  of  Legislative  Committee  of 

the  State  Teachers'  Association. 
Dr.  John  Sturm,  Pedagogue. 
John  Dewey,  Educational  Philosopher. 
William  E.  Ritter,  Biologist. 
Cassius  J.  Keyser,  Mathematician. 
Paul  Ehner  More,  Editor— Litterateur. 
Woodrow  Wilson,  President  of  the  United  States, 

89 


90  HIGH   SCHOOL  ADMINISTRATION 

Georg  Kerschensteiner,  Director  of  Education  in  Munich. 

A  "bewildered"  High  School  Principal. 

A  College  Professor  of  Education. 

An  Advocate  of  the  Cooley  Bill. 

A  Director  of  a  German  Gymnasium. 

A  Headmaster  of  a  French  Lycee. 

A  Headmaster  of  an  English  Public  School. 

A  State  Superintendent  of  Public  Instruction. 

Scene.  A  Conference  Room  at  the  State  House,  Spring- 
field, 111.,  called  to  consider  "The  Reconstruction — 
or  the  Duplication — of  the  State's  System  of  Sec- 
ondary Education." 

Chairman  of  the  Legislative  Committee  presiding. 

Gentlemen,  Distinguished  Visitors,  and  Members  of  tite 
Legislative  Committees : 

A  momentous  issue  is  to  be  considered  by  us  this  eve- 
ning. Questions  of  profound  educational  significance 
and  administrative  difficulty  are  involved.  Departing 
from  our  usual  and,  for  the  most  part,  necessary  prac- 
tices of  logrolling,  pooling  of  inexpert  opinions,  and  bal- 
ancing of  interests  represented  by  our  committee  mem- 
bership, we  propose  to  spend  one  evening  upon  the 
merits  of  the  educational  issue  before  us. 

May  we  proceed  at  once?  What  basal  principles 
shall  guide  us  in  reconstructing  the  system  of  public 
high  school  education  in  our  state?  What  methods  and 
what  organizations  of  instruction  must  we  provide  and 
secure  for  our  boys  and  girls  between  the  ages  of  14  (or 
possibly  12)  and  18?  And,  consistent  with  our  decision 
in  this  matter,  what  administrative  machinery,  both 
central  and  local,  will  best  insure  for  us  the  accomplish- 
ment of  our  purpose  ? 


THE  HIGH  SCHOOL  ISSUE  91 

I  suggest,  because  of  this  purely  educational  charac- 
ter of  our  meeting,  that  we  arrive  at  tentative  guiding 
principles  by  voicing  our  yeas  and  nays  upon  each 
minor  issue  as  we  proceed,  thus  reflecting  and  preserv- 
ing for  reference  as  near  as  may  be  the  "general  sense" 
of  this  more  or  less  expert  body. 

We  shall  proceed.     Dr.  Sturm. 

Dr.  Sturm  (a  sort  of  pedagogical  Rip  Van  Winkle). 
Modern  Gentlemen  and  Educators:  I  have  been  asleep 
since  1589  until  a  few  days  ago.  I  am  assured,  how- 
ever, by  six  of  the  distinguished  representatives  present 
that  the  history  of  education  presents  no  other  type  of 
secondary  school  curriculum  upon  which  have  been 
modelled  any  such  number  of  secondary  systems  as  my 
curriculum  at  Strassburg,  which  for  43  years  I  refined 
toward  pedagogical  perfection  in  turning  out  graduates 
adept  not  only  in  Latinitas  pura,  but  in  Latinitas  ornata. 
These  gentlemen  indeed  insure  me  that  I  have  hit  upon 
the  essential  principle  of  curriculum  building,  namely, 
centering  upon  one  kind  of  content.  This  content,  as 
you  all  know,  is  Latin.  Exclusively  for  four  good  hours 
every  day  for  10  years  Latin  in  our  famous  school  was 
taught,  read,  spoken  and  written.  Imitation,  good 
memory  in  reproduction.  Latinizing  ourselves  in  the 
good  imaginary  Roman  atmosphere  secured  the  greatest 
intellectual  endowments. 

(The  members  of  the  conference  are  impressed,  but 
in  different  ways,  by  this  confident  old  German.) 

Dr.  Georg  Kerschensteiner.  I  am  intimately  acquainted 
with  the  historical  developments  in  Germany  since  1589, 
and  partly  agree  and  partly  disagree  with  the  views 
expressed  by  our  venerable  Dr.  Sturm. ^    Moreover,  I 

^  G.  Kerschensteiner,  "The  Schools  and  the  Nation"  (London, 
trans.,  1914). 


92  HIGH  SCHOOL  ADMINISTRATION 

have  personally  followed  for  25  years  the  struggle  of 
Prussian  higher  schools  for  the  monopoly  in  education. 
I  was  keenly  concerned  in  the  Kaiser's  decree  in  1900, 
settling  the  question  of  "privilege"  and  allowing  the 
Realschulen  to  share  with  the  Gymnasien  this  monop- 
oly in  education.  What  I  questioned,  even  about  this 
momentous  decree,  itself  an  educational  compromise, 
was  whether  it  really  represented  a  movement  in  the 
interests  of  a  more  profoundly  useful  state  system  of 
secondary  education.  Since  the  1826  controversy  of 
Thiersch  and  Schulze  two  theories  of  secondary  educa- 
tion have  articulately  existed  and  been  strongly  cham- 
pioned in  Prussia.  Thiersch,  like  our  respected  Dr. 
Sturm  here  present,  advocated  one  pillar  for  the  secon- 
dary curriculum  and  insisted  that  this  should  be  the 
classical  pillar.  Schulze  advocated  what  I  shall  call  the 
"steam  engine"  method,  or  securing  an  "all-round" 
education  by  driving  abreast,  as  it  were,  in  each  boy's 
mind  the  classical  and  the  scientific  instruction. 

In  my  opinion,  sir,  future  time  will  justify  Thiersch  in 
his  one-pillar  basis  for  a  curriculum,  but  history  will 
record  his  mistake  in  his  exclusive  advocacy  of  the  clas- 
sical pillar.  The  most  fatal  demand  which  secondary 
schools  the  world  over  have  had  to  face  is  the  demand 
for  this  dream  of  general  all-round  education.  It  im- 
poses such  conditions  that  necessitate  cramming  the  12 
to  18  year  old  with  information  only— conditions  that 
make  impossible  the  moulding  of  an  harmonious  soul 
from  within.  It  further  implies  the  equally  fatal 
assumption  that  we  educate  all  along  the  same  general 
direction. 

To  test  the  sense  of  this  body,  I  suggest,  Mr.  Chair- 
man, that  we  approve,  as  our  first  fundamental  require- 
ment for  reconstructing  secondary  schools,  the  principle 


THE  HIGH  SCHOOL  ISSUE  93 

of  circumscribed  specialization  of  instruction.  Our  first 
vital  educational  question  is  to  decide  between  special- 
ized curriculums,  or  a  general  type  curriculum. 

I  believe  in  a  one-pillar  classical  school,  or  in  America 
or  France  in  one-pillar  "curriculums."  I  believe  in  the 
equal  value  of  a  one-pillar  modern  language  curriculum, 
a  natural  science  curriculum,  a  classical  curriculum  or 
equally  in  a  nimiber  of  one-pillar  special  vocational  cur- 
riculums. We  want  men,  not  lexicons.  Let  us  not 
labor  under  the  delusion,  however,  that  the  so-called 
''intellectual  studies"  only  can  produce  culture.  The 
screw-vice  or  turning-lathe  may  also  present  weighty 
problems  and  furnish  motives  for  thorough  theoretical 
research. 

Gentlemen,  as  a  foreign  visitor  I  have  trespassed  upon 
your  hospitality  and  have  become  disputatious,  I  fear. 
My  conviction  that  I  am  advocating,  not  a  substitute 
and  alternative  for  culture,  nor  a  compromise  with  de- 
mands of  culture,  but  really  the  first  essential  law  of  all 
organization,  that  a  school  curriculum  must  rest  upon 
one  pillar,  leading  to  culture  through  one  main  depart- 
ment of  learning,  of  wide  range,  hut  unified  hy  a  single 
idea,  is  my  only  excuse. 

Chairman.  Is  there  a  motion  that  we  vote  upon  this 
educational  principle? 

(All  remain  serious  and  thoughtful,  but  no  action  is 
taken.)  We  shall  then  proceed  with  the  discussion. 
May  we  hear  from  Mr.  More,  formerly  editor  of  the 
Nation  ? 

Mr.  More.  I  agree  with  Dr.  Kerschensteiner  that  our 
secondary  school  must  train  citizens  rather  than  merely 
efficient  civil-servdce  officials;  that  our  students'  work 
must  show  mastery  in  some  field,  and  that  there  are 
many  fields  of  alluring  interest.     I  could  not  have  sup- 


94  HIGH  SCHOOL  ADMINISTRATION 

ported  the  proposed  motion,  however,  because  I  believe 
the  best  thing  a  secondary  school  can  do  is  to  seize  upon 
the  best  educational  material  and  work  it  to  the  ut- 
most.^ I  believe  in  an  intellectual  aristocracy,  a  natural 
aristocracy — and  in  the  continued  and  augmented  pub- 
lic educational  provision  for  the  support  of  this  select 
scholarly  class.  The  unity  of  this  select  class  is  our 
only  means  of  obtaining  the  real  end  of  our  democracy. 
This  class  will  and  must  formulate  the  ideal  of  pure 
humanity  and  of  moral  freedom. 

Gentlemen,  I  congratulate  you  upon  having  called 
together  this  group  for  this  particular  purpose  of  estab- 
lishing norms  in  education,  of  stating  the  purposes  of 
schools.  Thus  far  there  has  been  scarcely  a  conscious 
effort  to  make  of  education  an  harmonious  driving 
force.  I  agree  with  the  English  teachers  of  our  Rhodes 
scholars  and  with  the  Prussian  gymnasial  exchange 
teachers  and  with  the  Carnegie  Foundation  (Fifth  An- 
nual Report)  that  young  American  boys  and  girls  are 
unacquainted  with  the  hard  manipulation  of  ideas,  genu- 
ine exercises  in  intellectual  gymnastics.  They  do  not 
know  firm  reasoning.  Even  when  they  grow  up  and 
become  college  professors,  they  show  a  singular  inability 
to  think  clearly  and  consecutively,  and  do  not  exhibit 
the  habit  of  orderly  and  well-governed  cerebration. 
Their  higher  faculty  of  the  imagination  has  not  been 
disciplined.  They  have  never  had  the  sublime  vision. 
In  short,  we  do  not  try  hard  enough  to  thin  out  the  un- 
malleable  minds  and  to  provide  for  the  entrance  of  the 
select  into  the  real  nobility  of  the  intellect. 

State  Superintendent.  The  speaker's  phrases  are  lofty, 
but  we  educational  officers  must  think  in  terms  of  the 

1  P.  E.  More,  "Academic  Leadership,"  The  Unpopular  Review, 
vol.  II,  no.  3,  pp.  32-152. 


THE  HIGH  SCHOOL  ISSUE  96 

specific  courses  and  combinations  of  courses  for  our  cur- 
riculums,  and  must  suggest  desirable  curriculum  types 
as  guides  for  250  or  more  high  schools,  on  the  average, 
in  our  different  States. 

Mr.  More.  I  was  for  the  moment  transported  to  the 
realm  of  pure  ideas.  I  will  be  specific.  I  mean  that  we 
now  know  that  some  studies  are  more  effectively  educa- 
tive than  others.  (Cites  investigations  to  prove  that 
classical  students  surpass  their  rivals  in  all  fields  where 
a  fair  test  can  be  made.^) 

In  some  respects  I  agree  with  Dr.  Sturm,  in  some 
with  Dr.  Kerschensteiner;  but  I  differ  from  either  on 
some  other  points.  English,  for  example,  cannot  be  the 
backbone  of  a  sound  curriculum.  There  are  too  many 
names  and  dates,  too  much  unsystematic  and  irrelevant 
geography  and  grammar,  and  too  frequent  evaporation 
in  romantic  gush  over  beautiful  passages.  German  and 
French  afford  some  exercises  in  mental  nimbleness,  but 
are  scarcely  rigorous  enough  for  this  single-pillar  cur- 
riculum foundation.  Mathematics  and  physics  require 
some  close  attention  and  firm  reasoning,  and  are  an 
essential  part  of  a  curriculum.  I  am,  however,  sceptical 
of  the  effect  of  the  non-mathematical  sciences  on  the 
immature  mind.  The  usual  elementary  and  pottering 
experimentation  in  chemistry  or  biological  science  af- 
fords an  almost  negligible  mental  grip.  My  experience 
as  editor  leads  me  to  believe  that  science  in  itself  is 
likely  to  leave  the  mind  in  a  state  of  relative  imbecility. 
Its  students  not  only  lack  the  graces  of  rhetoric,  but, 
aside  from  giving  an  account  of  an  experiment,  they  do 
not  think  lucidly  and  logically. 

Now,  gentlemen,  Latin  and  Greek,  not  as  Dr.  Sturm 
taught  them,  but  as  I  would  have  them  taught — from 
1  Op.  cit.,  p.  137. 


96  HIGH   SCHOOL  ADMINISTRATION 

their  sheer  difficulty,  their  organization,  the  refined  men- 
tal exercises  in  discriminating  nearest  word  equivalents, 
the  effort  of  lifting  one's  self  out  of  the  familiar  rut  of 
ideas  into  so  foreign  a  world — act  as  the  only  supreme 
tonic  exercise  to  the  brain.  Their  surpassing  educative 
possibilities,  moreover,  have  been  demonstrated,  as  I 
have  pointed  out,  by  scientific  investigation  of  effects, 
as  well  as  through  the  educational  experience  of  the 
world.  The  modern  classical  ideal,  this  initiation  into 
the  spirit  of  Hellenism,  has  held  captive  even  the  great- 
est minds. 

In  conclusion,  gentlemen,  our  secondary  schools  and 
our  colleges  are  selective  agencies.  Those  who  can  pass 
their  high  standards  must  constitute  the  living  reposi- 
tories of  our  modern  learning,  and  must  be  the  modern 
governing  oligarchy,  an  oligarchy  of  the  intellectuels ,  a 
culture  which  all  with  unmalleable  minds  must  support, 
and  to  which  they  must  bow.  This  limited  number  of 
secondary  pupils  must  pass  through  a  common  intellec- 
tual training,  acquire  a  single  body  of  ideas  and  images, 
become  a  noble  culture  cult.  Their  initiation  must  be 
through  this  single  group  of  studies,  the  classics,  accom- 
panied by  a  modicum  of  the  mathematical  sciences. 
These  studies  alone  have  a  specific  power  of  correction 
for  the  more  disintegrating  tendencies  of  the  age. 

(There  is  an  observable  impulse  to  applaud  the  sound 
of  these  noble  utterances,  but  still  no  definite  proposal 
to  commit  the  group  to  any  principle.) 

Cassius  J.  Keyser  (speaking  with  warmth).  I  have 
been  engaged  for  years  in  the  study  and  classification  of 
specimens  of  human  thought,  and  have  no  quarrel  with 
Mr.  More  on  the  human  worth  of  rigorous  thinking.^ 

*  C.  J.  Keyser,  "The  Human  Worth  of  Rigorous  Thinking," 
Science,  Dec.  5,  19 13,  pp.  789-800. 


THE  HIGH  SCHOOL  ISSUE  Q7 

This  rigorous  or  pure  thinking  is  a  relatively  rare  phe- 
nomenon. The  ideas  of  the  vast  majority  of  so-called 
educated  men  and  women  are  too  nebulous  and  vague, 
too  little  refined  and  defined  to  be  available  for  con- 
catenative  thinking  and  rigorous  discourse.  Most  of 
the  world's  thinking  done  on  a  given  day  on  the  streets 
or  farms,  or  in  factories  or  stores,  or  in  offices  of  doctors 
or  lawyers,  or  in  school  or  college  classrooms,  or — ^pardon 
me,  gentlemen — in  our  halls  of  legislation  comes  far 
short  of  the  demands  and  standards  of  rigorous  thinking. 

A  Member  of  the  Legislative  Committee.  I  wish  to 
suggest  to  the  professor  that  this  is  possibly  why  we 
cannot  understand  the  drift  of  his  remarks  now. 

Professor  Keyser.  The  drift  of  my  remarks  is  that 
the  goal  of  all  thinking — of  all  education — is  mathemati- 
cal, not  linguistic.  Through  mathematics  alone  the  in- 
tellect attains  harmony.  It  is  the  means  of  giving  wing 
to  the  subtler  imagination.  It  is  the  basis  for  criticism, 
for  speculation,  for  esthetic  judgment,  for  ethical  evalu- 
ation, and  even  for  religious  ecstasy  in  contemplating 
ideas  under  the  form  of  eternity. 

In  short,  gentlemen,  there  is  no  co-ordination  of  edu- 
cational disciplines.  All  disciplines  are  subordinated  to 
the  mathematical.  I  agree  with  the  one-pillar  base  in 
the  construction  of  a  curriculum,  but  I  do  not  agree 
with  Dr.  Sturm  or  Mr.  More  as  to  what  this  base  shall 
be,  nor  do  I  agree  with  Dr.  Kerschensteiner  that  almost 
any  field  of  knowledge  will  serve  as  the  curriculum  core. 
Mathematics  is  our  only  hope,  gentlemen. 

Mr.  Wm.  E.  Ritter.  Gentlemen  of  the  conference:  I 
have  devoted  a  good  deal  of  time  to  the  inspiring  task 
of  formulating  ten  biological  discoveries  and  generaliza- 
tions which  have,  I  believe,  very  great  importance  to 
civilized  men,  but  which,  through  the  inadequate  posi^ 


98  HIGH  SCHOOL  ADMINISTRATION 

tion  in  the  curriculum  of  biological  sciences,  are  by  no 
means  widely  known.^  I  shall  not  detail  these  ten  bio- 
logical laws  here,  but  stake  my  scientific  reputation 
upon  the  assertion  that  these  laws  are  of  very  great 
moment  to  the  higher  intellectual  and  spiritual  life  of 
the  people  generally;  that  the  high  school  boy  or  girl  is 
capable  of  understanding  the  most  essential  things  in 
these  discoveries,  and  that  most  of  them  have  bearing 
upon  the  universal  problems  of  personal  experience.  I 
agree  with  Dr.  Kerschensteiner  and  dissent  from  the 
views  of  Messrs.  More,  Keyser  and  Sturm,  to  the  ex- 
tent at  least  of  asserting  that  biological  studies  can  well 
be  the  pillar  of  a  curriculum. 

Chairman.  My  committee  are  somewhat  hazy,  gen- 
tlemen, on  these  technical  matters  of  educational  values. 
It  appears  that  each  branch  of  learning  has  its  cham- 
pion. I  feel  constrained  at  this  point  to  call  upon  our 
scholar  statesman,  President  Woodrow  Wilson. 

Mr.  Wilson.  We  have  in  this  country,  if  I  may  apply 
my  thoughts  on  college  education^  to  the  high  school,  a 
miscellany  of  courses  excellent  in  themselves,  but  ar- 
ranged with  no  organic  connections,  with  no  fixed 
sequence,  with  little  regard  to  any  particular  congruity 
between  the  several  parts. 

I  do  not  find  myself  in  sympathy  with  the  one-pillar 
theory,  gentlemen.  For  the  sake  of  making  a  clear 
issue,  therefore,  I  shall  advocate  a  three  or  four  pillar 
curriculum  and  sketch  what  I  wish  it  to  accomplish. 

Our  country  needs  men  whose  minds  have  had  a 


•  W.  E.  Ritter,  University  of  California  Publications,  vol.  IX, 
no.  4,  pp.  137-248,  March  9,  1912. 

*  W.  Wilson,  "The  Arts  Course  as  Distinct  from  the  Professional 
and  Semi-Professional  Courses."  Proc.  of  Asso.  of  Am.  Universities. 
Eleventh  Annl.  Conf.,  pp.  73-88,  Jan.,  1910. 


THE  HIGH  SCHOOL  ISSUE  99 

vision  of  the  field  of  knowledge,  whose  intellectual  sym- 
pathy is  genuine  and  catholic,  and  whose  power  of  com- 
prehension is  well  developed.  This  citizen  must  be  able 
to  receive,  to  see,  to  discriminate,  to  sympathize,  and 
to  comprehend.  He  must  state  things  with  precision 
and  reason  with  exactness  and  fearlessness,  moving  hon- 
estly and  directly  from  premises  to  conclusion.  He 
must  be  able  to  state  a  fact  without  stating  an  opinion. 
The  three  ideal  elements  of  our  curriculum  must  be  (i)  a 
discipline  of  principle,  not  the  old  barren  discipline  of 
process;  (2)  an  enHghtenment,  not  of  mere  information, 
but  of  acquaintance  with  the  thoughts  and  deeds  and 
moving  impulses  of  the  modern  world;  and  (3)  a  manly 
freedom  of  one  whose  interests  accord  with  the  general 
interests  of  society.  The  pillars  of  such  a  curriculum 
should  be  science,  Hterature,  and  the  field  of  history  and 
politics.  (For  the  college  I  should  add  philosophy.) 
Through  science  he,  the  student,  would  get  preposses- 
sions of  scientific  inquiry,  the  fixed  scientific  habit  of 
mind,  which  will  enable  one  to  walk  about  the  world  less 
a  stranger  to  the  processes,  results,  and  means  of  pro- 
duction in  the  realm  of  nature.  As  Huxley  admonishes, 
his  mind  must  be  stored  with  a  knowledge  of  the  great 
and  fundamental  truths  of  Nature  and  of  the  laws  of  her 
operations. 

In  literature  he  could  get  intimations  of  the  overpow- 
ering delights  of  enlargements  and  thrill,  and  be  stirred 
by  human  adventure,  move  within  the  spirits  of  other 
men,  and  sweep  the  horizon  for  all  the  airs  that  are 
astir.  The  necessity  of  history  and  politics  in  providing 
general  orientation  for  modern  students  is  too  obvious 
to  elaborate.  This  three-pillared  arrangement,  gentle- 
men, represents  my  practical  solution  of  the  question 
before  us.     I  am  unconvinced  of  the  feasibility  of  Dr. 


100  HIGH  SCHOOL  ADMINISTRATION 

Kerschensteiner's  curriculum  with  a  vocational  pillar, 
although  I  appear  to  be  more  modern  than  some  of  the 
other  speakers  in  other  respects.  I  have  even  appointed 
a  Federal  commission  to  look  into  this  matter  of  voca- 
tional education  of  secondary  grade. 

Chairman.  For  the  sake  of  making  our  issue  clear, 
may  we  hear  again  from  Dr.  Kerschensteiner  ? 

Dr.  Kerschensteiner.  I  respond  heartily  to  the  ideals 
of  President  Wilson.  They  are  the  genuine  ideals  of 
college  men  of  Oxford.  They  do  not,  however,  apply,  I 
beheve,  to  the  secondary-school  system  as  a  whole  which 
America  is  now  developing.  It  should  be  clear  that 
America  must  do,  through  some  enlargement  and  rami- 
fication of  function  and  multiplication  of  curriculums  of 
her  secondary-school  system,  what  European  systems  of 
France  and  Germany  partly  seek  to  do  through  exten- 
sion of  their  elementary-school  system.  You  have  an 
absolutely  unique  social  and  educational  problem.  Your 
secondary  schools  are  also  people's  schools.  Ours  are 
not.  The  typical  American  city  has  varied  interests 
and  activities,  a  heterogeneous  population,  families  of 
wealth,  families  of  small  means,  families  cultivated,  fami- 
lies uncultivated,  families  with  conflicting  economic  in- 
terests, some  with,  some  without  influence,  representa- 
tives from  all  of  which  are  engaged  in  professional, 
industrial,  commercial,  artistic  and  domestic  occupa- 
tions. Your  secondary  system  of  education  must  either 
select  one  of  these  classes  and  leave  the  rest  to  other 
educational  agencies,  as  ours  frankly  does,  or  it  must 
meet  all  these  varied  educational  requirements.  If  the 
latter  is  really  your  basis  for  organization,  support,  and 
development,  then  you  are,  in  my  opinion,  committed 
to  the  multi-curriculum  basis.  This  circumscribed  spe- 
cialization of  the  materials  and  skill  exercises  for  in- 


THE  HIGH  SCHOOL  issue' 101 

struction  and  training  is  your  first  fundamental  require- 
ment. Pursuing  my  first  principle  of  a  one-pillar  basis 
for  all  sorts  of  secondary  education,  I  answer  your  spe- 
cific question  as  well  as  the  definite  issue  raised  by  Mr. 
Wilson  by  saying :  I  can  well  believe  that  a  school,  either 
of  modern  languages,  or  of  natural  sciences,  or  a  tech- 
nical school,  would  be  of  quite  equal  value  with  one 
of  the  older  classical  schools;  but  what  I  cannot  admit 
is  the  value  of  a  classical,  modern-language,  natural- 
science,  mathematical,  manual-training,  fine-arts  insti- 
tution— that  mongrel  production — ^pardon  my  limita- 
tions in  the  softening  of  meanings  in  your  language — of 
certain  dilettanti  with  a  passion  for  organizing.  With  such 
a  hopeless  conglomeration  of  subjects,  all  of  equal  value, 
our  future  secondary  schools  should  have  nothing  to  do. 

Director  of  Prussian  Gymnasium.  Gentlemen,  your 
illustrious  statesman  President  is  voicing  the  historic 
and  present  ideals  of  our  Gymnasium.  We  seek  just 
this,  a  broad  humanistic  training,  making  one  intelli- 
gent and  independent  in  the  world  of  the  arts  and  sci- 
ences. To  my  great  surprise  the*  whole  discussion  so 
far,  with  the  exception  of  that  of  my  countryman.  Dr. 
Kerschensteiner,  seems  to  assume  the  European,  not 
what  I  had  supposed  was  an  American,  conception  of 
secondary  education. 

(No  dissent.) 

Headmaster  of  a  French  Lycee.  May  I  inquire  if  the 
one  and  one-fourth  million  American  high  school  pupils 
now  enrolled  and  the  three-fourth  million  of  high  school 
age  out  of  school  and  now  idle  or  in  blind  alley  occupa- 
tions are  all  destined  to  receive  this  high  training  for 
intellectual  leadership  in  professional  careers  of  which 
we  have  heard  such  glowdng  accounts? 

(No  one  seems  inclined  to  answer  the  inquiry.) 


102  HIGH   SCHOOL  ADMINISTRATION 

Headmaster  of  an  English  Public  School.  According 
to  our  English  Board  of  Education/  secondary  schools 
have  a  twofold  function — the  training  of  those  who 
aspire  to  occupations  requiring  a  highly  trained  in- 
telligence and  those  who  plan  to  extend  considerably 
into  later  years  their  educational  preparation  for  life. 
There  must  be,  however,  a  "Common  Course"  for  both 
groups.  In  extreme  cases  the  Government  will  allow 
a  vocational  Has  to  the  curriculum — never  a  vocational 
base  or  pillar.  Our  national  cardinal  pillars  are  the 
seven  usual  academic  studies,  with  large  weight  placed 
upon  the  foreign  languages  and  mathematics. 

I  suppose  I  may  speak  for  my  German  and  French 
colleagues  as  well  as  for  England  with  respect  to  one 
important  point  not  yet  mentioned.  Our  secondary 
schools  serve  as  excellent  agencies  for  segregating  the 
classes  from  the  masses — a  most  convenient  and  appreci- 
ated feature. 

Chairman.  These  characterizations  of  foreign  types 
of  high  schools  are  interesting,  and  Mr.  Wilson's  educa- 
tional statesmanship  inspires  us  all,  I  am  sure.  It  will 
be  well  to  have  some  comment  at  this  point  from  our 
American  High  School  Principal,  despite  his  continued 
look  of  bewilderment. 

Bewildered  American  High  School  Principal.  Gentle- 
men, I  have  no  such  clear  ideas  of  the  purpose  of  the 
high  school  as  have  my  visiting  colleagues  from  Europe 
or  the  university  specialists  here  present.  Whenever 
we  American  high  school  principals  hear  of  some  new 
curriculum  we  at  once  regroup  our  high  school  subjects 
and  thus  provide,  on  paper,  the  curriculum  desired. 
Most  of  these  curriculums,  however,  are  merely  the  re- 

1  "Curricula  of  Secondary  Schools,"  Circular  826.  (Board  of 
Education,  London,  1913.) 


THE  HIGH  SCHOOL  ISSUE  103 

suit  of  a  reshuffling  of  courses.  They  are  merely  paper 
curriculums.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  we  have  in  America 
no  "pillar  theory"  of  curriculum  construction.  I  re- 
cently read  carefully  the  published  curriculums  of  40 
high  schools  of  American  cities  with  about  20,000  popu- 
lation. These  40  schools  offered  180  curriculums,  aver- 
aging more  than  four  curriculums  each.  I  know  that 
no  one  of  them  furnishes  four  thorough  and  distinguish- 
able trainings  for  as  many  intelligibly  grouped  divisions 
of  the  students.  I  myself  print  eight  curriculums  for 
our  pupils,  but  most  of  them  represent  varieties  of  the 
college  preparatory.  Those  that  do  not  are  vocational 
mainly  in  name.  From  the  points  of  view  of  the  func- 
tions of  secondary  education,  the  principles  of  curricu- 
lum construction,  the  bases  for  assigning  students  to 
curriculums,  systems  of  educational  and  vocational 
guidance,  and  the  securing  of  teachers  of  vocational  edu- 
cation, I  am  forced  to  admit  to  this  body  that  I  am 
entirely  at  sea.  I  feel  that  the  American  high  school 
is  somehow  on  trial,  and  that  radical  readjustments  are 
impending.  I  have  found  this  conference  absorbingly 
interesting.  I  hope,  however,  engrossing  as  these  spec- 
ulative questions  are,  that  something  more  definite  may 
issue  from  it  before  we  adjourn.  We  principals  have  to 
do  something  each  day.     We  wish  safe  guidance. 

Chairman.  Before  going  on  to  this  practical  consid- 
eration of  the  next  step  in  the  development  of  secondary 
education,  I  am  sure  all  of  us  should  like  a  unifying 
word  from  Professor  John  Dewey,  America's  best-known 
philosopher  of  education. 

Mr.  Dewey.  All  the  discussions  thus  far  have  been 
as  grist  to  my  philosophical  mill.  Every  statement  has 
some  measure  of  truth.  I  believe  with  Mr.  More  and 
Mr.  Wilson  in  giving  a  prominent  place  in  the  curricu- 


104  HIGH  SCHOOL  ADMINISTRATION 

lum  to  those  subjects  directly  touching  upon  human  life 
itself,  its  art,  its  literature,  and  its  politics — that  knowl- 
edge which  touches  our  offices  as  human  beings,  which 
lays  hold  of  our  emotions  and  imagination  and  unifies 
character.  These  things  stir  men  to  action,  and  they 
are  good.  Although  these  in  practice  are  the  last  things 
the  average  student  gets  from  the  classics,  the  ideal 
remains. 

Nevertheless,  at  least  an  equal  place  in  the  curriculum 
must  be  given  to  the  sciences.^  This  scientific  attitude 
of  mind  must  be  fixed  during  the  early  years  of  Hfe. 
The  future  of  our  civiHzation  depends  upon  the  widen- 
ing spread  and  deepening  hold  of  the  scientific  habit  of 
mind.  High  schools  must  discover  how  to  mature  and 
make  effective  this  mental  attitude.  Civilization  must 
be  ruled,  not  as  heretofore,  by  things  and  words,  but  by 
thought.  I  would  go  so  far  as  to  say  that  only  the 
gradual  replacing  of  a  Hterary  by  a  scientific  education 
can  assure  to  man  the  progressive  amelioration  of  his 
lot.  Our  boys  and  girls  should  have  some  idea  of  kinds 
of  evidence,  of  proofs,  and  a  lively  interest  in  the  ways 
knowledge  is  unproved  as  well  as  a  marked  distaste  for 
unscientific  conclusions.  Science  has  done  none  of  these 
things.  It  must.  It  has  formed  no  social  or  moral 
ideas,  but  if  we  are  ever  to  live  and  be  governed  by  in- 
telligence, not  words,  science  must  have  something  to 
say  about  what  we  do. 

You  see,  gentlemen,  the  curriculum  pillar  I  should 
erect.  Moreover,  this  emphasis  upon  science  as  method, 
as  habit  of  mind  rather  than  as  subject-matter,  in  no  way 
precludes  any  of  the  curriculums  Dr.  Kerschensteiner 
advocates.     I  shall  even  go  further  than  Dr.  Kerschen- 

1  John  Dewey,  "Science  as  Subject-Matter  and  as  Method." 
Science,  Jan.  28,  1910,  pp.  121-127, 


THE  HIGH  SCHOOL  ISSUE  105 

steiner.  My  conception  of  all  secondary  curriculums — 
and  I  admit  a  variety,  from  the  college  preparatory  to 
the  trade  curriculums — must  all  be  shot  through  and 
through  with  vocational  connections.  The  realization 
that  organized  knowledge  arose  in  connection  with  in- 
dustry and  human  needs  must  permeate  the  whole 
school.  All  instruction  must,  of  course,  rise  to  the 
plane  of  general  ideas,  must  be  personalized  and  inter- 
pretative, never  merely  narrative,  negative,  destructive. 
The  social  and  ethical,  the  genuinely  vocational,  as  well 
as  the  purely  physical  or  mental,  come  within  our  scope 
here. 

These  are  my  general  principles.  I  shall  have  more 
to  say  upon  the  practical  decisions  when  our  body  here 
moves  on  to  a  definite  issue. 

College  Professor  of  Education.  In  order  to  be  clear 
as  to  how  Dr.  Kerschensteiner's  principle  of  definite 
goals  for  each  secondary  curriculum  is  to  work  in  every- 
day practice,  I  wish  to  inquire  if  in  his  specialized  cur- 
riculums he  would  have,  say,  one-quarter  or  one-third 
of  the  total  time  allotment  of  a  student  devoted  to  this 
major  or  pillar  subject,  and,  say,  one-half  of  the  remain- 
ing time  to  cognate  or  allied  subjects  and  the  remaining 
time  to  the  still  more  remotely  related  and  indirectly 
contributory  fields? 

Dr.  Kerschensteiner.  In  so-called  academic  work  the 
gentleman  describes  the  proposed  school  application 
very  well,  but  for  the  technical  curriculums  I  should 
suppose  the  so-called  "project"  work  would  make  the 
procedure  more  complicated. 

Chairman.  Curriculum  making  has  been  called  the 
"indoor  sport"  of  schoolmen.  I  begin  to  see  its  deeper 
aspects.  We  are  glad  to  have  these  deeper  issues  raised. 
We  shall  hear  from  the  State  Superintendent. 


106  HIGH  SCHOOL  ADMINISTRATION 

State  Superintendent.  We  have  two  sharply  opposing 
views  of  the  Ideal  American  High  School.  One  of  these 
is  that  the  high  school  must  be  a  miniature  university 
in  form  of  organization,  with  its  agricultural  students, 
its  students  of  the  commercial  arts,  students  of  the 
mechanic  arts,  students  of  the  domestic  arts,  and  its  col- 
lege preparatory  students.  This  means  that  the  varied 
high  school  programme  must  have  curriculum  offerings 
for  these  important  and  distinguishable  groups — all 
within  the  public  school  system.  It  is  the  counter  sug- 
gestion offered  as  a  substitute  for  and  better  than  the 
separate  and  undemocratic  and  costly  plan  for  extension 
of  secondary  education  provided  by  the  well-known 
Cooley  bill,  which,  if  passed,  will  tend  to  impose  upon 
the  present  high  school  only  academic  responsibilities 
and  thus  weaken  it  in  the  popular  mind,  and  deprive  it 
of  the  rejuvenating  effects  of  the  parallel  and  competing 
vocational  curriculums.  The  State  Cormnission  bill, 
favored  by  all  the  school  people,  as  I  interpret  it,  carries 
rather  the  implication  of  the  desirability  and  practica- 
bility of  several  high  school  curriculums,  preserving  the 
good  features  of  the  Cooley  provision  and  omitting  the 
"dual  system"  feature.  This  "curriculum-differentia- 
tion" feature  of  the  high  school  instructional  programme 
is  the  common  feature  upon  which  harmony  is  sought. 
It  seeks,  moreover,  what  both  approve — and  it  reflects 
the  real  cause  of  the  whole  issue  in  every  State  in  the 
Union— this  need  of  vocational  education. 

The  other  view,  the  traditional  view  of  the  high 
school,  is  that  identical  items  of  knowledge,  identical 
curriculums,  a  single  curriculum,  in  fact,  is  the  ideal 
toward  which  designers  of  high  school  curriculums 
should  strive.  This  is  presented  as  the  only  safeguard 
to  social  sympathy,  national  loyalty  and   other   com- 


THE  HIGH   SCHOOL  ISSUE  107 

mon  virtues  essential  to  a  democratic  civilization.  To 
those  who  have  looked  long  for  curriculum  designs  in 
the  high  school  programme,  to  say  nothing  of  the  ele- 
mentary, the  panicky  fears  of  curriculum  differentia- 
tions are  groundless.  The  arraignment  of  the  move- 
ment toward  curriculum  variations  seems  like  raising 
up  a  bogey  or  straw  man  and  hitting  him  very  hard. 
Those  senior  and  even  junior  high  school  principals, 
with  the  exception  of  those  in  the  larger  cities,  with 
whom  I  have  talked  have  rarely  found  possible  yet  even 
a  partial  differentiation.  Besides,  I  have  found  no  one 
who,  even  in  the  remote  future,  hopes  to  differentiate 
trainings  so  completely  that  a  liberal  amount  of  com- 
mon instruction  will  not  be  required  in  all  the  curricu- 
lums.  The  German  higher  schools,  under  a  dual  or 
even  triple  system  of  local  administration  are  undemo- 
cratic and  un-American,  not  for  the  lack  of  common 
elements  of  instruction  (for  they  have  these  every- 
where), nor  from  the  fact  that  their  limited  number  of 
differentiated  curriculums  are  well  and  carefully  de- 
signed for  special  governmental  purposes  (for  they  are 
admirable  in  this  respect),  but  because  they  do  not  pro- 
vide for  some  classes  in  their  system  at  all.  The  princi- 
ple of  "special  privilege"  characterizes  all  German  sec- 
ondary schools.  The  more  thoroughgoing  curriculum 
differentiation  on  a  purely  democratic  basis  of  social 
requirement  and  individual  preference  and  suitability 
would  seem  rather  to  provide,  within  our  thus  extended 
secondary  system  of  public  education,  just  that  daily 
contact,  social  intermingling,  mutual  acquaintance  and 
enlarged  appreciation  of  diverse  educational  and  voca- 
tional aims  and  ideals  represented  in  our  high  school 
student  body.  This  student  body,  too,  will  be  much 
larger  and  must  be  vocationally  more  representative 


108  HIGH  SCHOOL  ADMINISTRATION 

than  it  is  now.  Fundamentals  for  our  educational  and 
social  democracy  must  be  provided,  but  not  by  the 
single  rigid  curriculum,  even  were  this  curriculum  to 
combine  all  the  good  features  of  all  the  distinguished 
specialists  who  have  spoken. 

Advocate  of  the  Cooley  Bill.  I  agree  with  all  that  has 
been  said  with  respect  to  the  great  need  of  all  sorts  of 
vocational  education  for  boys  and  girls  of  high  school 
age,  about  two-thirds  of  whom  are  in  school  and  one- 
third  of  whom  are  even  now  in  blind  alley  jobs  or  in 
vicious  idleness.  I  agree  with  the  one-pillar  theory  of 
curriculum  making.  I  agree  that  we  must  furnish  some 
other  than  the  traditional  kinds  of  high  school  educa- 
tion for  these  adolescent  youths  of  both  sexes.  Every 
speaker  has  admitted  that  all  systems  of  secondary  edu- 
cation have,  on  a  scholastic  basis,  become  selective  in- 
stitutions, and  have  despised  and  ruthlessly  thinned 
out  of  their  ranks  those,  to  use  Mr.  More's  phrase, 
"with  unmalleable  minds."  Secondary  educators  all 
over  the  world  have  always  been  blinded  by  their  devo- 
tion to  the  intellectually  superior  minority  among  their 
pupils.  They  fail  in  entrance  standards  and  otherwise 
to  allow  for  the  multitude  who  cannot  satisfy  the  same 
scholastic  requirements  by  completing  the  elementary- 
school  system,  and  they  fail  to  work  definitely  with  and 
for  those — at  least  half  their  total  enrolment — who  can 
only  make  beginnings  in  high  school  work.  Our  sec- 
ondary educators  are,  more  than  half  of  them,  young 
women.  Out  of  each  hundred  of  the  men  even,  every 
ID  have  had  only  four  years  beyond  the  elementary 
school,  45  only  from  four  to  eight  years  of  some  sort  of 
training,  30  eight  years,  and  15  have  had  nine  or  more 
years,  still  academic,  for  the  most  part.  Of  the  25,000 
women,  whose  training  is  more  restrictedly  academic 


THE  HIGH  SCHOOL  ISSUE  lOd 

and  even  linguistic  perhaps,  the  amount  of  such  prepa- 
ration is  practically  the  same.  In  some  of  our  states 
nearly  one-half  of  the  whole  high  school  teaching  force 
shift  places  after  one  year.  A  small  proportion  are  pro- 
fessionally trained  in  the  administration,  pedagogical, 
and  social  work  of  the  high  school. 

Gentlemen,  the  moving  spirit  of  American  public 
schools,  like  that  of  the  European  systems,  is  too 
firmly  established  to  make  room  for  what  you  all  admit 
is  needed — specialized  secondary  curriculums  for  the 
needed  skilled  artisans,  for  the  mass  of  farmers,  for  the 
homekeepers  and  home  servants,  for  the  clerks  and 
independent  small-scale  business  men,  for  the  young 
aspirant  for  rural-school  teaching,  for  three-quarters  of 
the  high  school  population,  and  for  the  other  three- 
quarter  milHon  who  should  be  in  the  high  schools  and 
are  not.  Your  present-day,  typical  high  school  and 
college  educator  cannot  deal  sympathetically  with  the 
aims  of  vocational  education.^  His  predilections,  in 
disregard  of  the  so  evident  present  necessity  of  tempo- 
rizing adjusted  curriculums,  is  for  the  purely  intellectual 
approach,  even  to  problems  of  skill  as  well  as  to  those 
of  understanding.  Furthermore,  I  doubt  his  and  her 
ability  in  this  field.  For  this  reason  I  advocate  the 
Cooley  bill.  We  have  too  much  at  stake  to  run  the 
risk  of  accepting  the  paper  curriculums  such  as  the  high 
school  principal  present  admits  are  now  the  rule,  where 
indeed  even  a  pretense  at  vocational  education  is  pro- 
vided. We  need  a  new  kind  of  Federal  Board  of  Voca- 
tional Education,  a  new  and  separate  state  board,  dis- 
tinct  local  boards,  distinct  school  districts,  distinct  school 
administrators,  a  wholly  new  kind  of  teacher,  new  types 

iSee  D.  Snedden,  Bulletin  i8,  Proc.  of  Nat.  Soc.  f.  P.  Indl. 
Edn.,  Oct.,  1913,  pp.  55-59- 


110  HIGH  SCHOOL  ADMINISTRATION 

of  teaching,  new  sorts  of  apparatus,  and  separate  state 
and  local  school  funds.  This  movement,  with  our  many 
and  increasing  national  associations,  is  the  twentieth- 
century  religion — a  social  educational  philosophy,  a  new 
solution  of  social  problems,  an  indication  of  a  profound 
educational  revolution.  Seven  states  have  passed  vo- 
cational education  laws,  and  as  many  more  are  working 
for  one  now.  In  some  respects  most  of  them  have  tem- 
porized with  tradition.  With  the  exception  of  Wiscon- 
sin, their  steps,  while  in  the  right  direction,  have  been 
timid  and  hesitating.  They  offer  the  shadow  for  the 
substance.  They  are  exploiting  a  cheap  vocational  ed- 
ucation; they  are  deceiving  themselves  with  formulae  of 
forms  of  vocational  education  too  simple  and  too  easily 
comprehended.  They  are  turning  out  products  upon 
which  the  real  vocational  world  looks  with  pity  and 
contempt. 

Gentlemen,  let  us  have  all  that  the  learned  speakers 
have  advocated,  but  let  us  also  make  sure  of  the  present 
vocational  need  also.  The  Cooley  bill  provides  educa- 
tionally for  what  we  all  want.  No  one  opposes  any  of 
its  features,  except  certain  technical  matters  of  the 
machinery  of  administration. 

Chairman.  Does  any  one  propose  a  definite  expres- 
sion of  this  body  on  any  of  the  issues  raised  ? 

State  Superintendent.  I  wish  to  add  a  few  comments 
before  we  test  the  sentiment  of  the  conference.  In  my 
opinion,  despite  the  fact  that  we  have  approved  no 
definite  step  as  yet,  we  have  made  great  progress.  We 
have  sensed  the  power  and  dignity  and  integrity  of  our 
representatives  of  pure  scholarship;  we  have  noted  the 
right  ring  in  the  voices  of  those  who  feel  the  urgency  of 
vocational  education;  we  appreciate  the  legitimate  and 
natural  points  of  view  of  our  foreign  visitors,  and  we 


THE  HIGH  SCHOOL  ISSUE  111 

accept  as  genuine  the  fervid  arraignment  of  our  present 
system  of  public  high  school  education  by  the  advocate 
of  a  new  and  parallel  system.  So  long  as  I  have  a  voice 
in  the  legislation  for  our  own  state  I  shall  champion  all 
the  educational  ideals  here  presented. 

I  would  supplement  what  the  last  speaker  has  said — 
and  admit  even  more  of  the  shortcomings  of  our  present 
system.  Massachusetts  enrolls  about  60,000  in  her  high 
schools.  She  has  about  45,000  of  the  same  age  in  un- 
productive employment.  Vermont  enrolls  only  5722 
of  her  25,000  15-18-year-olds.  Likewise,  an  estimate  of 
87  school  superintendents  of  Illinois  leads  me  to  say 
that  this  state  has  34.5  per  cent  of  its  adolescents  out 
of  school  and  idle  or  in  undesirable  employment.  Fur- 
ther than  this,  32  per  cent  of  these  school  administrators 
do  not  think  it  possible  for  the  high  school  to  offer  a 
vocational  curriculum. 

This  curriculum  making  and  thinking  is  a  new  thing, 
even  if  it  prevails.  It  marks  an  epoch  in  high  school 
development.  It  cannot  be  accomplished  in  a  day 
under  any  system.  It  is,  under  present  conditions,  the 
rare  school  that  can  do  any  real  experimentation  in 
this  field.  We  do,  however,  have  numerous  experiments 
which  are  indicative  of  a  movement  toward  differen- 
tiated curriculums.  There  is  a  notable  effort  of  scien- 
tists in  the  different  fields  to  co-operate  in  relating 
sequentially  the  various  high  school  science  courses,  in 
providing  a  more  suitable  introduction,  and  in  adjusting 
subject-matter,  methods  and  new  kinds  of  courses  to  the 
different  curriculums  in  which  these  courses  are  func- 
tioning. Likewise,  all  the  language  and  literature  work 
of  the  curriculums  shows  the  same  sort  of  co-operative 
designing  and  adaptation  purpose.  It  is  true  of  the 
historical,   civic,   and   economic    instruction.     The    at- 


112  HIGH  SCHOOL  ADMINISTRATION 

tempts  of  manual-training  departments  to  expand  and 
ramify,  to  extend  their  fields,  to  correlate  with  freehand 
and  mechanical  drawing,  to  become  adjusted  to  trade 
or  agricultural  demands  are  likewise  indicative  of  un- 
derlying curriculum  designing.  Absolutely  no  field  of 
education  has  developed  so  rapidly  as  the  secondary 
field.  I  am  of  the  opinion  that  we  may  safely  legislate 
with  reference  to  all  these  desirable  curriculum  changes 
and  additions  within  the  present  system;  that  it  would 
be  too  expensive  and  impractical  otherwise;  that  the 
present  high  school  needs  the  exhilarating  effect  of  such 
new  spirit  and  novel  pedagogy;  that  the  curriculums 
with  the  new  pillars  need  the  steadying  standards  of 
the  old  ones,  and  that  they  also  need  some  of  these  aca- 
demic subjects  with  which  to  round  out  any  specific 
vocational  training  which  may  form  the  curriculum 
base. 

In  conclusion,  Mr.  Chairman  and  gentlemen  of  the 
conference,  I  move  that  it  is  the  present  sense  of  this 
body  that — 

Chairman.  Pardon  me.  We  are  to  hear  again  from 
Mr.  Dewey. 

Mr.  Dewey.  I  believe  we  may  still  follow  where  the 
argument  leads.  The  ends  in  view  of  the  last  two 
speakers  are  the  same.  We  must  do  nothing  to  make 
our  present  organized  public  educational  system  indif- 
ferent to  this  new  and  vital  movement,  still  less  antag- 
onistic to  it.^  We  must  not  deprive  industrial  educa- 
tion of  such  valuable  co-operation,  nor  literary  educa- 
tion of  the  pedagogical  and  moral  influences  of  this 
vocational  spirit  in  education.     This  infusion  of  new  and 

1  J.  Dewey,  "Should  Michigan  Have  Vocational  Education  under 
'Unit'  or  'Dual'  Control?"  Proc.  of  Soc.  f.  P.  Indl.  Edn.,  pp. 
27-34,  Oct.,  1913. 


THE  HIGH  SCHOOL  ISSUE  113 

fresh  purposes  merely  means  that  the  industries  and 
the  business  houses  and  the  workingmen  and  the  home- 
keepers  are  joining  in  with  the  college  in  making  known 
to  high  schools  desirable  preparations  for  high  school 
students  whose  career  intentions  point  in  their  several 
directions.  Assuming  this  interest  and  concern  of  the 
community  as  a  whole,  we  want  for  our  public  high 
school,  through  its  differentiated  and  well-designed  cur- 
riculums,  a  complete  rounded-out  scheme  representing 
all  factors  in  a  unified  school  system.  The  Cooley  bill 
represents  a  desperate  measure,  a  measure  of  last  resort. 
One  large  fallacy  is  that  it  assumes  that  many  children 
must  leave  school  at  14,  and  creates  an  agency  which  is 
thus  largely  interested  in  doctoring  and  patching  up 
these  children  after  they  get  into  industry.  The  ten- 
dency will  be  to  be  less  interested  in  them  before  they 
leave  school.  Though  we  must  do  what  we  can  for 
those  whom  the  school  has  lost,  still  our  fundamental 
necessity  is  to  change  our  educational  system  so  that 
these  children  will  not,  and  carmot  afford  and  will  not 
wish  to,  leave  school  generally  at  14.  An  American  city 
of  40,000^  should  have  a  large  centrally  located  high 
school  occupying  a  whole  block,  with  auditorium,  sev- 
eral good  laboratories,  a  gjnnnasium,  a  library,  and  pos- 
sibly the  beginnings  of  art  collections.  This  should 
easily  be  the  most  important  institution  of  the  city. 
Moreover,  it  should  exist  for  the  education  of  the  whole 
people.  The  regular  day  attendance  should  be  1500, 
the  evening  attendance  of  youths  and  adults  2000,  and 
the  social-center  activities  numerous  and  varied.  Such 
a  high  school  should  profoundly  influence  the  home 
Ufe,  the  spiritual  life,  and  the  commercial  and  industrial 

^  See  Report  of  a  Survey  of  the  School  System  of  Butte,  Mont., 
June,  1914,  p.  di. 


114  HIGH  SCHOOL  ADMINISTRATION 

life,  as  well  as  the  aesthetic  development  of  the  entire 
city.  We  cannot  split  nor  duplicate  such  elaborate 
physical  plants,  but  more — ^we  cannot  estabHsh  two 
sources  for  educational  uphft  and  inspiration.  Our  high 
schools  have  a  history;  they  are  a  part  of  the  educational 
personality  of  all  our  cities  and  towns;  they  should  be 
allowed  to  grow — indeed  should  be  forced  to  expand — 
but  never  to  divide. 

Headmaster  of  French  Lycee.  The  last  speech  reminds 
me  that  M.  Buisson  of  the  Chamber  of  Deputies  has 
introduced  a  bill  of  similar  import  in  France,  advocating 
a  unified  national  school  with  liberally  bifurcated  cur- 
riculums,  and  a  three-cycle  curriculum  arrangement, 
allowing  for  a  broad  vocational  education. 

Director  of  German  Gymnasium.  There  is  a  similar 
principle  in  the  strong  movement  in  Germany  for  the 
"Einheit  School." 

Headmaster  of  the  English  Public  School.  The  Liberal 
Party  of  England  likewise  is  proclaiming  the  ideals  of 
national  education  in  many  particulars  much  like  the 
movements  named. 

College  Professor  of  Education.  Secondary  education 
in  all  civilized  coxmtries  of  the  world  is  the  object  of 
national  inquiries  and  reforms.  With  a  loyal  and  com- 
prehending trust  we  are  turning  to  the  public  high 
school  as  the  guardian  of  our  modern  culture.  At  pres- 
ent this  high  school  is  puzzled  by  conflicting  necessities; 
it  is  hampered  by  contradictory  and  sometimes  harping 
criticism;  it  is  bewildered  by  its  unescapable  responsi- 
bilities.* It  knows  that  it  must  expand  to  meet  the 
composite  needs  of  a  whole  people.  It  wishes  to  appre- 
hend the  nature  of  these  needs.     Even  with  lavishness 

^  Annie  K.  Tuell,  "Our  'Classical  Recollections,'"  Atlantic 
MontUy,  Dec,  1914,  pp.  778-786. 


THE  HIGH  SCHOOL  ISSUE  115 

in  experimental  waste  it  must  meet  with  a  practical  in- 
telligence the  necessity  of  the  laboring  world  for  efficient 
vocational  preparation.  It  must  also  do  even  more 
than  it  is  now  doing  to  keep  clear  the  road  to  the  trea- 
sures of  deeper  learning  for  those  who,  by  fortune  or  by 
energy  of  divine  intellectual  discontent,  can  prolong 
their  search  well  beyond  the  high  school  years.  The 
problem  of  secondary  education  is  a  baffling  and  a 
double  one.  Let  our  high  schools  honor  first  their  great 
popular  and  urgent  vocational  mission,  but  let  them  at 
the  same  time  indulge  a  little  of  that  wholesome  defer- 
ence and  that  heartening  devotion  to  learning  without 
which  any  and  all  of  us  are  in  a  sorry  plight  indeed. 

I  move  you,  sir,  that  it  is  the  sense  of  this  body 
that— 

The  American  high  school  is  inclined  toward  expan- 
sion from  within  to  the  extent  of  strengthening  still 
further  the  language,  the  history  and  the  science  cur- 
riculum pillars,  and  of  adding  bona  fide  vocational  cur- 
riculums  and  fine  arts  curriculums; 

That  the  professional  status  of  its  teaching  ranks  is 
steadily  rising; 

That  its  ruling  administrative  policy  is  favorable 
toward  all  legitimate  extensions  of  school  activities; 

And  that,  therefore,  all  legislation  with  reference  to  the 
education  of  youth  above  14  years  of  age  should  build 
upon  the  existing  national  system  of  public  high  schools. 

Chairman.     Those  in  favor  will  please  stand. 

The  motion  prevails. 

Chairman.  We  are  indebted  to  you,  gentlemen,  and 
we  assure  you  we  shall  deal  in  executive  session  more 
intelligently  with  the  issues  involved  in  the  bills  which 
are  soon  to  be  passed  upon  by  us  and  recommended  by 
us  to  the  legislature. 


THE  ADOLESCENT  PERIOD 

The  work  of  the  secondary-school  teacher  assuredly 
falls  within  one  of  the  most  stimulating  and  interesting 
periods  of  human  development.  Every  one  knows  that 
during  the  "teens"  boys  and  girls  "grow  up"  (to  use 
the  root  meaning  of  the  Latin  adolescere).  Jrmmie  of 
the  grades  becomes  Mr,  Brown  of  the  high  school  seniors, 
while  his  sister  Mabel  undergoes  almost  under  our  eyes 
an  even  more  striking  transformation  into  young 
womanhood.  Of  course  it  is  possible  to  exaggerate; 
there  is  no  cataclysm,  no  overnight  metamorphosis,  yet 
those  who  have  commented  upon  the  physical  and  men- 
tal alterations  characteristic  of  the  period  have  com- 
monly regarded  them  as  sufficiently  rapid  and  suffi- 
ciently extensive,  in  comparison  with  the  more  gradual 
alterations  of  childhood  and  with  the  steadier  progress 
of  maturity  in  the  years  that  follow,  to  be  regarded  as 
constituting  a  special  period  of  peculiar  significance, 
especially  of  peculiar  significance  to  those  teachers 
whose  business  it  is  to  know  human  nature  and  to  make 
impressions  upon  it. 

The  actual  span  of  adolescence  is  somewhat  variable; 
we  think  of  it  as  roughly  covering  the  time  between 
puberty  and  maturity.  Puberty  is  defined  by  the 
physiologist  as  that  stage  of  physical  development  at 
which  an  individual  first  becomes  capable  of  begetting 
or  bearing  children.  Ordinarily  this  stage  is  reached  by 
girls  in  their  twelfth  or  thirteenth  year,  and  by  boys  in 
their  fourteenth  year,  though  there  are  marked  varia- 
tions in  the  time  of  its  appearance,  e.  g.,  from  as  early  as 

116 


THE  ADOLESCENT  PERIOD  117 

the  tenth  to  as  late  as  the  twentieth  year.  There  is  a 
close  connection  between  growth  in  height  and  pubertal 
change,  so  that  the  stage  of  physical  development  that 
is  attained  may  often  be  estimated  correctly  by  noting 
the  rate  of  increase  of  stature  and  of  weight.  The  fact 
that  girls  reach  the  onset  of  puberty  earlier  than  boys 
is  likewise  reflected  in  their  outward  growth;  there  is 
actually  a  period  between  the  ages  of  1 1.5  and  14.5  when 
girls  are  taller  than  boys,  and  a  period  between  the  ages 
of  12.5  and  14.5  when  girls  are  heavier  than  boys  of  the 
same  age.  In  other  measurements,  like  strength  of 
grip,  lung  capacity,  etc.,  girls  again  are  found  to  reach 
a  period  of  rapid  physical  development  earlier  than 
boys,  though  they  never,  as  a  group,  excel  the  boys  in 
these  measurements. 

All  of  these  physical  changes  and  many  others  that 
appear  at  the  same  time,  like  lengthening,  thickening, 
ossification,  and  alterations  in  shape  of  bones;  marked 
increase  in  breathing  capacity  accompanying  enlarge- 
ment of  the  thoracic  cavity,  radical  increase  in  the  size 
and  strength  of  the  heart,  appearance  of  facial  hair  in 
boys,  the  alteration  in  the  voice  of  boys,  known  as 
"mutation"  (usually  a  drop  of  about  an  octave  in 
pitch),  the  enlargement  of  the  pelvis  and  bust  in  girls — 
all  of  these  physical  changes  are  quite  obviously  closely 
connected  with  the  advent  of  other  well-known  aspects 
of  sex  development  in  both  sexes.  The  phenomena 
combine  to  signal  the  transformation  from  childhood 
to  adult  Hfe. 

Just  what  alterations  go  on  in  the  brain  we  have  no 
precise  means  of  knowing;  but  we  do  know  that  the  de- 
velopments just  indicated  must  be  associated  with  some 
sort  of  corresponding  modifications  in  the  nervous  sys- 
tem that  controls  the  body,  and  again  we  do  know  that 


118  HIGH  SCHOOL  ADMINISTRATION 

adolescent  boys  and  girls  do  think  and  feel  and  talk  in 
ways  different  from  those  of  childhood,  and  that  these 
changes,  too,  must  be  reflected  in  some  sort  of  corre- 
sponding developments  in  the  nervous  system. 

In  seeking  to  classify  and  understand  these  mental 
alterations  it  seems  natural  to  expect  that  their  ex- 
planation will  be  found  in  the  same  general  principles 
that  underlie  the  bodily  alterations  of  the  period;  that 
is,  that  the  psychological  aspects  of  adolescence  will  be 
found  to  be  manifestations,  sometimes  direct,  often  per- 
haps quite  indirect,  of  the  unfolding  of  the  drama  of 
sex.  In  fact,  it  is  difficult  to  see  any  other  explanation. 
The  child  is  essentially  an  egoist,  an  individuaHst;  he  is 
moved  to  follow  out  his  own  desires;  he  is  originally  and 
naturally  selfish  (however  much  the  careful  training  of 
parents  and  teachers  may  have  overlaid  or  transformed 
his  native  bent);  for  him  "self-preservation  is  the  first 
law  of  nature."  The  expansion  of  the  interest  in  sex  at 
the  time  of  puberty  is  indicative  of  the  preparation 
nature  is  making  for  the  individual  to  participate  in  the 
fife  of  the  race;  for  nature  the  preservation  of  the  species 
is  more  important  than  the  preservation  of  the  indi- 
vidual. 

It  becomes,  therefore,  important  that  interest  in  the 
opposite  sex  should  arise,  that  love  and  courtship,  with 
all  their  tremendous  mental  stimulation  and  their  con- 
cern for  others,  should  supplant  the  self-centred  atti- 
tude of  childhood.  And  thus  it  comes  about  that  the 
highest  forms  of  altruistic  conduct — the  development  of 
respect  for  others,  the  seeking  to  act  in  such  a  manner 
as  to  secure  the  approbation  of  one's  fellows,  the  out- 
pouring of  sympathy,  the  yearning  for  the  beautiful, 
the  sacrifice  of  selfish  satisfactions  to  promote  the  wel- 
fare of  others — that  all  these  and  similar  phases  of  men- 


THE  ADOLESCENT  PERIOD  119 

tal  and  moral  development,  as  well  as  such  more  obvi- 
ous and  possibly  less  worthy  manifestations  as  interest 
in  the  opposite  sex,  self-consciousness,  "  showing-off ," 
and  interest  in  adornment,  are  to  be  understood  and 
interpreted  as  manifestations  of  sex.  Stanley  Hall,  to 
whom  we  owe  so  many  of  our  present-day  studies  of 
adolescence,  refers  to  the  more  remote  or  indirect  mani- 
festations as  the  " long-circui tings "  or  "irradiations"  of 
the  sex  instinct;  other  psychologists  refer  to  them  as 
"sublimations"  of  the  sex  interest. 

It  will  perhaps,  then,  be  imderstood  that  the  actual 
development  of  these  sublimations  is  not  always  accom- 
plished or  at  least  not  effected  as  it  should  be.  The 
problem  is  to  make  the  strong  instinctive  tendencies 
that  emerge  at  this  period  serve  as  motives  for  worthy 
conduct  and  not  to  permit  them  to  become  debased  or 
debauched.  The  problem  is  to  use  the  driving  power  of 
sex  to  socialize  the  individual.  Evidently  the  problem 
is  closely  associated  with  the  inculcation  of  ideals,  and 
especially  with  the  skilful  utilization  of  the  religious 
sentiments  that  seem  so  commonly  to  become  a  power- 
ful factor  in  the  motives  behind  the  conduct  of  youths 
and  maidens  in  the  mid-adolescent  period. 

This  problem  of  guiding  the  thoughts,  sentiments, 
and  ideals  of  boys  and  girls  who  are  becoming  young 
men  and  young  women  can  hardly  be  dissociated  from 
the  closely  related  problem  of  guiding  their  physical 
development  through  the  same  period.  Much  interest 
has  attached  in  recent  years  to  the  matter  of  instruction 
in  the  physiology  and  hygiene  of  sex.  Only  the  stupid 
will  deny  the  uncommon  importance  that  attaches  to 
this  question;  only  the  ultraprudish  will  declare  that 
teachers  and  parents  ought  to  avoid  discussion  of  sex 
hygiene. 


120  HIGH  SCHOOL  ADMINISTRATION 

Out  of  the  maze  of  conflicting  opinions  we  do  discern 
a  few  general  trends  of  agreement.  Thus  (i)  it  is  evi- 
dent enough  that  all  normal  children  have  a  perfectly 
natural  curiosity  about  the  facts  of  sex  and  that  this 
curiosity  leads  them  in  early  childhood  to  ask  simple 
naive  questions. 

(2)  It  is  agreed  by  most  persons  who  have  thought 
over  the  matter  at  all  carefully  that  parents  ought  to 
meet  these  early  questions  with  equal  simplicity  and 
readiness  to  satisfy  the  curiosity,  and  that  anything  like 
prudish  avoidance  or  repulsion  of  the  child's  queries 
tends  to  erect  a  most  unwholesome  barrier  between 
parent  and  child,  and  to  develop  a  sort  of  taboo  about 
the  whole  subject  that  is  distinctly  undesirable  and  the 
source  of  many  mental  disturbances  in  after-years. 

(3)  The  "policy  of  silence,"  as  some  writers  have 
termed  it,  is  wholly  indefensible  in  the  light  of  the  facts. 
Children  uninformed  or  misinformed  by  their  parents 
get  information  from  others,  usually  from  their  play- 
mates, and  in  a  most  lamentable  form.  Lack  of  paren- 
tal instruction  is  responsible  for  endless  worry,  mostly 
quite  unnecessary,  on  the  part  of  boys  and  girls  entering 
the  period  of  puberty,  and  doubtless  is  responsible,  too, 
for  some  measure  of  actual  immorality,  if  not  for  some 
part  in  the  calamitous  spread  of  venereal  diseases. 

(4)  Ideally,  parental  instruction  is  to  be  desired. 
Practically  many  parents,  whether  through  ignorance  or 
false  modesty  or  procrastination,  fail  to  fulfil  their  obli- 
gations to  their  children,  and  the  question  that  then 
arises — ought  church  or  school  to  stand  in  loco  parentis 
in  these  circumstances  ?  is  answered  differently  by  differ- 
ent persons.  So  far  as  can  be  gathered,  no  systematic 
movement  for  bringing  sex  instruction  under  the  gui- 
dance of  the  church  can  be  discerned  in  this  country. 


THE  ADOLESCENT  PERIOD  121 

In  some  high  schools,  normal  schools,  and  colleges  there 
has  been  achieved  real  success  in  bringing  these  matters 
clearly  and  yet  skilfully  and  inoflFensively  before  the 
student  body,  usually  by  means  of  a  few  talks  by  some 
competent  person  before  the  two  sexes  separately,  or 
by  discussing  the  ethical  and  social  aspects  of  sex  in 
this  manner  and  supplementing  this  presentation  by 
informative  instruction  in  connection  with  courses  in 
physiology,  zoology,  botany,  or  general  biology.^  On 
the  other  hand,  there  have  been  reports  of  trials  that 
were  not  so  successful.  A  great  deal  depends  upon  the 
personality  of  the  speaker  and  upon  his  sympathetic 
understanding  of  the  mental  attitudes  and  the  stock  of 
ideas  of  the  pupils  before  him.  It  would  seem  desirable, 
for  instance,  that  no  talks  should  be  given  by  "outsid- 
ers" unless  the  school  authorities  were  provided  with 
advance  copy  for  editing  or  for  rejection.  Probably, 
also,  it  would  be  politic  for  school  principals  or  super- 
intendents to  enlist  the  co-operation  of  parents  before- 
hand by  means  of  conferences,  parent-teachers'  associa- 
tions, and  the  like,  and  then  to  make  attendance  of 
pupils  at  the  school  talks  optional  or  by  the  request  of 
parents. 

(5)  We  do  not  know  yet  just  what  topics  ought  to  be 
included  in  an  attempt  at  formal  or  informal  instruc- 
tion.    There  is  much  debate,  for  instance,  as  to  whether 

1  See,  for  instance,  W.  H.  Eddy,  "An  Experiment  in  Teaching 
Sex  Hygiene,"  Journ.  of  Educ.  Psychol.,  2,  Oct.,  191 1,  451-458;  also 
W.  S.  Foster,  "School  Instruction  in  Matters  of  Sex,"  same,  440- 
450;  and  a  symposium  in  Journ.  of  Educ,  75,  March  21,  1912,  313- 
323.  Further  discussion  of  the  content  of  school  courses  in  matters 
of  sex  may  be  found  in  Clara  Schmidt,  "The  Teaching  of  the  Facts 
of  Sex  in  the  Public  School,"  Pedag.  Sent.,  27,  June,  1910,  229-241, 
while  a  proposed  graded  course  of  instruction  is  presented  by 
B.  Talmey,  M.D.,  in  his  book,  "Genesis;  A  Manual  of  Instruction 
of  Children  in  Matters  Sexual,"  New  York,  19 10. 


122  HIGH  SCHOOL  ADMINISTRATION 

the  abnormal,  the  pathological  aspects  of  sex  ought  to 
be  touched  upon,  as  to  whether  right  conduct  can  be 
secured  better  by  this  variety  of  appeal  to  fear.  Most 
persons  are  agreed  that  discussion  of  these  phases  of  the 
problem  ought  to  be  deferred  until  perhaps  the  late 
high  school  period.  There  seems  also  to  be  considerable 
agreement  upon  the  general  principle  that  the  impart- 
ing of  the  main  facts  as  to  sex  might  well  come  in  the 
period  before  puberty  when  the  child  is  not  especially 
self-conscious,  and  when  these  matters  seem  to  come 
up  quite  naturally  in  the  course  of  other  work  in  nature 
study,  physiology,  and  hygiene.  There  is  likewise  con- 
siderable agreement  upon  the  general  principle  that  in 
high  school  instruction  the  main  stress  should  be  placed 
upon  the  ethical  and  social  aspects  of  sex — such  as  the 
right  relations  of  the  sexes,  the  meaning  of  the  family, 
of  love,  courtship  and  marriage,  the  dignity  of  mother- 
hood, etc. 

One  of  the  tendencies  of  adolescence  obviously  closely 
associated  with  the  sex  instinct  is  the  ripening  into  full 
function  of  the  social  instinct  in  its  various  ramifica- 
tions. As  compared  with  their  mates  in  the  grade 
school,  boys  and  girls  of  high  school  age  are  distinctly 
less  self-centred,  are  more  interested  in  others,  are 
more  likely  to  seek  the  society  of  others,  are  more  pro- 
foundly affected  by  the  opinions  of  others,  are  more 
prone  to  behave  in  such  a  way  as  to  gain  the  good-will 
of  others  (especially  of  the  opposite  sex),  and  are  more 
ready  to  give  up  their  own  personal  satisfaction  in  order 
to  help  another.  All  these  shifts  of  attitude  are  evi- 
dently of  far-reaching  significance  for  the  mental  and 
moral  development  of  their  possessors,  and  of  corre- 
spondingly great  significance  for  the  teacher  who  would 
seek  to  mould  this  development.    We  say  "  seek  to  mould 


THE  ADOLESCENT  PERIOD  123 

this  development"  because,  although  the  shifts  of  atti- 
tude just  cited  are  undoubtedly  instinctive  at  bottom, 
and  therefore  the  common  property  of  all  human  beings 
at  these  ages,  they  are  not  always  fully  accomplished; 
human  instincts  are  more  or  less  modified  by  training 
and  environmental  conditions  generally.  Consequently, 
the  primary  problem  of  adolescent  training,  as  I  see  it, 
is  to  supervise  and  guarantee,  as  it  were,  that  this  fun- 
damental transition  from  the  self-centred  mind  of  child- 
hood to  the  socialized  mind  of  adulthood  is  properly 
effected.  It  is  worth  our  while  to  consider  some  of  the 
methods  by  which  this  realization  by  the  individual  of 
his  place  in  a  social  system,  this  development  of  the 
sentiment  of  duty  and  responsibility,  can  be  brought 
about. 

One  of  the  signs  or  symptoms  of  the  awakening  social 
tendency  is  the  greater  tendency  toward  the  formation 
of  groups  of  all  sorts — of  clubs,  societies,  unions,  leagues, 
organizations,  and  what  not.  The  adolescent  takes 
kindly  to  the  idea  of  banding  together  for  some  com- 
mon purpose,  whether  it  be  recreative  or  athletic  or 
philanthropic  or  merely  social  in  the  narrower  sense. 
Of  course  boys  and  girls  do  things  in  groups  when  they 
are  children,  but  most  of  the  active  and  persistent  group 
activities  of  children  are  made  for  them  and  largely  run 
for  them  by  their  elders.  In  the  prepubertal  stage 
there  is  hardly  a  boy  who  doesn't  belong  to  some  sort  of 
spontaneously  organized  "gang."  This  gang  is  usually 
a  more  or  less  well-organized,  even  though  transient, 
organization  for  carrying  on  athletics  or  some  other  form 
of  physical  activity,  rarely  for  the  sort  of  literary,  artis- 
tic, or  philanthropic  activity  that  grown-ups  organize 
societies  for.  These  spontaneously  organized  societies, 
especially    the    rudimentary   ones   organized   by   boys, 


124  HIGH  SCHOOL  ADMINISTRATION 

have  been  rather  carefully  investigated,  and  numerous 
valuable  ideas  for  the  assistance  of  adults  in  superin- 
tending the  development  of  social  tendencies  have  been 
derived  from  the  investigations.^  It  has  been  shown, 
for  instance,  that  boys  and  girls  cannot  be  handled  to 
the  best  advantage  in  the  same  organization,  that  boys 
drawn  from  different  social  strata  do  not  fuse  well,  that 
even  skilful  leaders  cannot  always  maintain  these  or- 
ganizations for  indefinitely  long  periods,  that  societies 
formed  for  serious  moral  purposes  ought  not  to  have 
this  aspect  too  prominent,  but,  rather,  supplementary 
to  a  programme  appealing  to  physical  activity,  with  a 
reasonable  amount  of  mystery,  ceremony,  and  secrecy. 

Secondary-school  teachers,  as  teachers,  are  concerned 
in  these  social  developments  of  adolescence  when  they 
take  the  form  of  organizations  within  the  school  itself. 
It  would  be  unusual,  indeed,  to  find  an  American  high 
school  of  any  size  that  did  not  boast  of  several  organiza- 
tions— athletic  teams,  class  societies,  musical  clubs, 
camera  clubs,  walking  clubs,  school  papers,  etc.  For  a 
summary  of  studies  of  these  organizations  we  cannot  do 
better  than  refer  to  a  report  of  a  committee  of  the  Mas- 
sachusetts Council  of  Education,^  T.  C.  Whitcomb, 
chairman,  from  which  the  following  conclusions  may  be 
quoted : 

"i.  Class  organizations,  literary  societies,  musical 
organizations,  art  clubs,  and  school  papers  are  helpful 

^  See,  for  example,  Winifred  Buck,  "Boys'  Self-Governing  Clubs" 
(New  York,  1903);  W.  B.  Forbush,  "The  Boy  Problem"  (4th  ed., 
Philadelphia,  1902);  J.  A.  Puffer,  "The  Boy  and  His  Gang"  (Bos- 
ton, 1912);  H.  Sheldon,  "The  Institutional  Activities  of  American 
Children,"  Amer.  Journ.  of  Psychol.,  9,  1898,  425-448. 

*"  Report  on  Organizations  among  High-School  Pupils,"  6gth 
Annual  Kept.  Brd.  Educ,  Mass.,  1904-1905.  (Published  Boston, 
1906,  as  Public  Doc.  No.  2,  pp.  178-198.) 


THE  ADOLESCENT  PERIOD  125 

to  the  pupils  and  a  benefit  to  the  school,  provided  they 
are  under  the  oversight  of  the  school  authorities. 

"2.  Class  committees  for  the  purposes  partly  com- 
mercial (class-pins,  photographs,  dances,  etc.)  are  espe- 
cially in  need  of  the  most  exacting  regulations. 

"3.  While  more  than  half  of  the  athletic  associations 
which  include  and  direct  the  varied  athletic  activities  of 
the  school  are  under  the  supervision,  more  or  less  com- 
plete, of  the  teachers  of  the  schools,  the  right  to  control 
has  been  assumed  rather  than  assured.  Under  this 
assumed  control  the  participation  in  athletics  is  condi- 
tioned upon  rank  in  scholarship. 

"4.  A  large  majority  of  the  teachers  reporting  con- 
sider athletics  a  benefit  to  the  schools.  Sixty-five  per 
cent  believe  that  both  scholarship  and  discipline  are 
improved.  But  all  agree  that  this  is  only  true  when  all 
such  matters  are  under  the  control  of  the  school  authori- 
ties." 

A  special  instance  of  the  problem  of  organizations  in 
the  high  school  is  set  by  the  secret  society.  Partly  in 
imitation  of  the  college  fraternity,  partly  as  a  natural 
expression  of  the  social  tendencies  of  the  period,  there 
has  developed  in  many  secondary  schools  a  series  of 
secret  societies,  both  for  boys  and  for  girls,  that  have 
presented  difficulties  of  no  small  degree  to  the  admin- 
istrative authorities.  Every  study  of  the  high  school 
fraternity  that  has  been  conducted  by  unprejudiced  in- 
vestigators has  revealed  a  strong  opposition  to  them  on 
the  part  of  boards  of  education,  principals,  and  teach- 
ers. It  is  felt  that  these  societies  are  essentially  antag- 
onistic to  the  democratic  spirit  of  the  American  high 
school,  and  that  there  is  no  real  need  for  them  that 
cannot  be  met  in  some  better  way.  In  schools  where 
they  have  not  gone  so  far  as  directly  to  antagonize  the 


126  HIGH  SCHOOL  ADMINISTRATION 

school  authorities  and  to  disrupt  discipline,  or  have  not 
degenerated  into  sources  of  positive  moral  damage,  they 
have  at  least  been  prone  to  interfere  with  school  poli- 
tics, to  create  class,  race,  or  social  prejudices,  and  to 
interfere  by  their  social  functions  with  the  work  of  their 
members  as  students. 

When  action  has  been  taken  against  their  continu- 
ance by  school  authorities,  the  fraternities  have  usually 
declared  their  innocence  in  these  accusations  or  have 
contended  boldly  that  their  affairs  were  no  concern  of 
the  school  since  their  meetings  were  held  off  the  school 
grounds  and  outside  of  school  hours.  But  legal  deci- 
sions, as,  for  example,  that  by  the  Supreme  Court  of  the 
State  of  Washington,  have  fully  upheld  the  rights  of  the 
school  authorities  to  control  or  to  abolish  the  secret 
societies,  and  there  are  now  so  many  states  in  which 
their  existence  has  been  outlawed  that  the  exigency  of 
this  particular  problem  has  been  much  reduced. 

In  general,  the  group-forming  tendencies  of  the  high 
school  period,  however,  are  valuable  assets  to  the 
teacher,  and  they  need  to  be  conserved  and  utilized 
rather  than  thwarted.  Attempts  have  been  made  in 
many  schools,  in  this  connection,  to  turn  the  group  ten- 
dencies to  account  in  the  recitation  and  in  the  general 
activities  of  the  school.  There  have  been,  for  instance, 
more  or  less  successful  attempts  to  "socialize"  the  reci- 
tation. In  some  types  of  school  work,  such  as  history, 
civil  government,  and  perhaps  some  phases  of  labora- 
tory work,  it  appears  feasible  for  a  skilful  teacher  to 
proceed  by  what  the  college  student  terms  a  "seminary" 
method.  The  main  topic  is  divided  into  a  series  of 
assignments,  and  individual  pupils  look  up  and  report 
upon  these  assignments  while  the  remainder  are  sup- 
posed to  listen  intelligently,  and  afterward  to  discuss 


THE  ADOLESCENT  PERIOD  127 

the  report  critically  and  to  summarize  it  on  demand. 
It  is  evident  to  any  one  who  has  tried  this  method,  even 
with  mature  and  highly  interested  college  students, 
that  it  has  certain  advantages — appealing  to  co-opera- 
tion, stimulating  competition,  encouraging  critical  lis- 
tening— but  that  these  may  be  outweighed  by  the  un- 
evenness  of  the  contributions  made  by  the  different 
class  members,  the  failure  to  secure  unity  and  co- 
ordination, and  the  tendency  to  consume  undue  amounts 
of  time.^ 

Somewhat  analogous  points  may  be  made  with  regard 
to  utilizing  the  social  tendencies  of  the  adolescent  period 
for  assistance  in  carrying  on  the  administrative,  and 
especially  the  disciplinary,  phases  of  high  school  work. 
Several  years  ago  there  was  great  interest,  for  instance, 
in  the  "school  city"  plan.  In  substance,  each  pupil 
became  a  citizen  in  a  conamunity,  divided  into  wards 
(the  several  classrooms)  and  equipped  with  all  the 
ordinary  paraphernalia  of  city  government,  mayor,  al- 
dermen, police,  board  of  health,  and  what  not.  To  these 
officials,  elected  in  a  form  that  followed  as  closely  as 
might  be  the  ordinary  mechanism  of  city  elections,  was 
turned  over  all,  or  nearly  all,  the  ordinary  problems  of 
school  operation.  This  plan,  and  many  others  more  or 
less  similar  to  it  in  spirit,  seems  to  work  out  well  when 
new  but  to  die  out  when  the  novelty  has  worn  off.  In 
most  self-governing  school  plans,  experience  shows, 
oversevere  penalties  are  inflicted,  jealousy  is  aroused, 
enmities  arise  between  pupils,  and  what  advantage  may 
lie  in  the  real-enough  training  in  the  details  of  civil  gov- 
ernment is  probably  counterbalanced  by  the  equal  op- 
portunities for  training  m  petty  ''graft"  and  cheap  poli- 

^  For  detailed  discussion,  consult  C.  A.  Scott,  "Social  Education," 
especially  chaps.  VI  and  VII;  also  J.  Dewey,  "School  and  Society/' 


128  HIGH  SCHOOL  ADMINISTRATION 

tics.  The  best  plans  appear  to  be  those  in  which  the 
teachers  retain  dominant  control. 

It  has  been  the  fashion  to  ascribe  to  the  period  of 
adolescence  not  only  an  awakening  of  these  instinctive 
tendencies  that  we  have  been  discussing,  but  also  an 
awakening  of  the  senses:  sight  is  alleged  to  grow  keener; 
likewise  hearing  and  the  other  senses.  More  careful 
scrutiny  of  the  facts  shows  us,  however,  that  this  so- 
called  awakening  is  not  primarily  a  sharpening  of  the 
senses  as  such,  but  rather  an  augmentation  in  the  feel- 
ings that  are  set  in  play  by  these  senses;  an  increase,  in 
other  words,  in  the  interest  that  is  taken  in  things  seen, 
heard,  felt,  smelled,  and  tasted.  A  further  factor  in  the 
"awakening"  is  surely  the  broader  point  of  view,  the 
wider  intellectual  horizon,  of  the  adolescent;  phases  and 
aspects  of  life  that  are  uninteresting  or  even  quite  un- 
noticed by  the  child  take  on  meaning  for  the  maturer 
mind  of  the  adolescent. 

As  an  illustration  of  this  process  of  mental  develop- 
ment reference  may  be  made  to  the  various  studies  of 
the  growth  of  ideals  as  related  to  age  and  sex.  Numer- 
ous investigators  have  studied  children's  ideals  by  get- 
ting oral  or  written  answers  to  such  questions  as:  "What 
would  you  most  like  to  do  when  you  grow  up?" 
"Whom  do  you  most  want  to  resemble  and  why?" 
"If  you  could  have  your  choice  of  any  position  in  any 
imaginary  new  city,  what  would  it  be?"  The  results 
show  that  younger  children  almost  always  name  as 
their  ideal  some  person  well  known  to  them  and  their 
immediate  environment — their  parents  or  relatives  or 
their  teachers,  whereas  just  about  the  dawn  of  puberty 
there  is  a  significant  widening  in  the  range  and  variety 
of  ideals,  so  that  characters  in  public  life,  in  fiction,  and 
outside  of  the  immediate  environment  in  general,  tend 


THE  ADOLESCENT  PERIOD  129 

to  replace  the  ideals  of  childhood.  At  the  same  time 
corresponding  alteration  takes  place  in  the  range  and 
variety  of  occupational  ideals.  Thus,  occupations  se- 
lected as  indicative  of  wealth,  beauty,  and  social  eclat 
tend  in  adolescence  to  be  replaced  by  occupations  char- 
acterized by  altruistic,  philanthropic,  and  humanitarian 
motives.  All  these  alterations  in  ideals  are  more  evi- 
dent in  the  replies  of  boys  than  in  those  of  girls.  Sev- 
eral investigators  have  bemoaned  the  tendency  of  girls 
to  name  masculine  ideals  (boys  rarely  name  feminine 
personages)  and  have  suggested  that  teachers  of  girls 
ought  to  make  a  special  effort  to  acquaint  them  with 
the  lives  of  noble  women  who  best  exemplify  the  pe- 
culiar virtues  of  their  sex. 

The  writer  has  himself  been  struck  with  the  very 
great  importance  that  may  attach  to  these  alterations  in 
ideals,  especially  in  their  effect  upon  the  choosing  of  a 
vocation.  Evidently  there  may  be  danger  in  both  direc- 
tions; a  boy  of  real  ability  who  leaves  the  high  school 
because  carried  away  by  some  transient  longing  to  tend 
a  soda-fountain  may  ruin  a  possible  career  as  a  civil 
engineer  of  merit,  whereas  a  boy  of  mediocre  or  poor 
ability  who  persists  doggedly  through  high  school  and 
college  because  fired  by  an  ideal  of  service  to  mankind 
through  the  ministry,  may  waste  his  own  efforts  as  well 
as  the  money  and  time  of  friends  and  teachers  in  a  vain 
effort  to  attain  to  a  calling  for  which  he  is  really  unfitted. 
Every  teacher  knows  these  instances  of  overambitious 
ideals;  they  arouse  one's  sympathy,  but  they  certainly 
do  not  make  for  the  general  efficiency  of  our  social 
organization. 

The  adolescent  alteration  of  ideals  is  perhaps  only  one 
outward  evidence  of  the  general  inward  alteration  of 
point  of  view  to  which  we  have  already  alluded — that 


130  HIGH  SCHOOL  ADMINISTRATION 

is,  the  general  tendency  to  remake  conduct  on  a  basis 
that  shall  permit  of  consideration  of  oneself  in  one's  re- 
lation to  others  rather  than  merely  in  relation  to  one's 
self  alone.  This  shift  from  egoism  to  altruism,  if  those 
terms  do  not  exaggerate  it  too  much,  is  very  neatly 
brought  out  in  the  characteristic  religious  phenomena 
of  the  period.  Every  one  who  has  been  observant 
knows  that  adolescence  is  pre-eminently  the  time  of 
religious  conversion.  Figures  show  that  a  considerable 
part,  doubtless  more  than  half,  of  all  conversions  oc- 
cur during  the  ages  fifteen  to  seventeen.  This  fact 
is  hardly  attributable  to  an  accident;  it  denotes  the 
operation  of  some  definite  factors,  and  these  factors  evi- 
dently relate  to  the  general  underlying  physical  trans- 
formation that  makes  adolescence  what  it  is.  The  point 
is,  then,  that  whatever  be  the  creed  embraced  by  the 
convert  and  whatever  be  the  particular  variety  of  con- 
version that  he  exhibits,  and  whether  this  be  gradual  or 
sudden,  and  whether  it  be  "conventional"  (in  the  sense 
of  following  the  general  form  prescribed  or  impHed  by 
the  religious  body  that  has  been  influential  in  bringing 
it  about)  or  unconventional — in  any  event  the  real  ker- 
nel of  the  experience  is  Just  this  rearrangement  of  atti- 
tude toward  the  relation  of  self  to  others  that  we  have 
already  mentioned  as  constituting  the  kernel  of  the 
mental  alterations  of  the  period  in  general.  Looked  at 
in  this  way,  religious  conversion  is  really  simply  the  out- 
ward symbolizing  of  the  inner  experience  that  is,  or 
should  be,  natural  to  all  normal  adolescents.  The  great 
contribution  of  religion  to  life  might  be  found,  accord- 
ing to  this  view,  in  supervising  or  "guaranteeing," 
as  it  were,  the  moral  regeneration  that  is  so  much 
desired.  The  very  emotionality  of  religious  experience 
is  doubtless  of  peculiar  value  in  this  connection,  for  the 


THE  ADOLESCENT  PERIOD  131 

stronger  and  more  all-pervading  the  sentiments  that 
attend  this  moral  birth,  the  surer  and  more  complete  is 
the  process. 

One  of  the  special  problems  raised  in  religious  peda- 
gogy in  this  connection  is:  what  ought  to  be  done  to 
minimize  or  avoid  the  doubts  and  struggles  that  many- 
adolescents  pass  through,  especially  in  the  later  years  of 
adolescence,  in  trying  to  harmonize  the  conflicting  views 
of  life  that  they  have  absorbed  at  various  stages  of  their 
mental  and  moral  development?  These  difficulties  are 
ofttimes  quite  serious,  particularly  in  the  case  of  young 
men  and  young  women  of  the  more  thoughtful  sort,  espe- 
cially when  their  education  is  continued  through  the 
college.  The  problem  usually  arises  when  the  widening 
of  the  intellectual  horizon  discloses  facts  and  principles 
that  seem  quite  at  variance  with  the  notions  of  things 
that  were  imbibed  in  childhood,  especially  with  notions 
about  the  general  plan  of  the  imiverse  and  about  the 
religious  views  of  childhood — the  nature  of  evil,  the 
probability  of  Ufe  after  death,  the  possibility  of  mira- 
cles, the  efficacy  of  prayer,  etc.  There  are  some  who 
believe  this  sort  of  reconstruction  is  inevitable,  and  that 
the  best  thing  to  do  is  to  encourage  the  doubter  to  dis- 
cuss his  difficulties  freely  with  some  older  and  wiser  per- 
son; there  are  others  who  believe  that  reconstruction 
would  be  unnecessary  if  the  early  religious  teachings 
were  less  dogmatically,  less  literally,  presented,  or  even 
subordinated  to  the  simple  inculcation  of  the  funda- 
mentals of  good  conduct.  Doubtless  there  can  be  laid 
down  no  rules  that  would  apply  in  detail  to  all  cases. 
In  answering  the  analogous  question:  ought  we  to  tell 
our  children  of  Santa  Claus  and  permit  them  to  discover 
later  that  the  whole  story  is  but  a  myth  ?  we  find  that 
some  children  are  merely  amused  when  the  truth  is 


132  HIGH  SCHOOL  ADMINISTRATION 

revealed,  whereas  others  are  really  appalled  at  what 
they  deem  the  deliberate  falsehood  of  their  parents. 

Another  special  problem  associated  with  the  mental 
and  moral  awakening  of  adolescence  relates  to  the  ap- 
pearance of  what  some  persons  refer  to  as  the  period  of 
"sowing  wild  oats."  It  certainly  does  seem  that  most 
boys,  at  least,  before  they  "settle  down"  as  reHable  and 
steady-going  adults,  do  pass  through  a  period  of  more 
or  less  lawless  conduct,  or  perhaps  break  out  now  and 
then  in  wilful  misconduct  of  the  most  exasperating 
sort.^  Criminologists  speak  of  "adolescent  criminality" 
and  sometimes  make  what  seem  to  the  writer  quite  far- 
fetched assertions  about  the  various  "manias"  charac- 
teristic of  adolescence.  It  would  seem  that  the  general 
situation  in  which  the  adolescent  finds  himself  is  suffi- 
cient to  account  for  most  of  this  "crime."  In  the  na- 
ture of  the  case  contact  of  individual  with  individual  is 
widened,  control  by  the  home  is  less  stringent  and  con- 
tinuous, and  the  temptation  to  "try  something  once," 
just  to  get  the  experience,  is  obviously  increased. 
Moreover,  there  may  be  financial  or  social  needs  to  be 
met  that  tempt  to  minor  acts  of  an  unlawful  nature. 
Add  to  this  the  internal  condition — the  passing  through 
the  period  of  mental  and  moral  readjustment  when  old 
sanctions  of  conduct  are  felt  to  be  "silly"  and  childish, 
while  the  newer  ones  have  not  been  completely  devel- 
oped— and  we  would  appear  to  have  the  conditions 
under  which  most  of  the  misconduct  of  adolescence 
arises.  A  goodly  fraction  of  the  downright  cases  of  per- 
sistent and  repeated  criminal  ofTenses  turn  out  to  be 
committed  by  persons  of  subnormal  mentality  who 
really,  that  is  to  say,  don't  know  enough  to  foresee  the 

'  See  Swift,  "Some  Criminal  Tendencies  of  Boyhood,"  Fed.  Sem., 
8,  1901,  65-91,  for  typical  illustrations. 


THE  ADOLESCENT  PERIOD  133 

outcome  of  their  behavior  or  to  control  their  conduct  by 
the  higher  social  motives.  One  of  the  most  obvious 
general  principles  for  affecting  the  reformation  of  the 
adolescent  whose  conduct  is  antisocial  is,  then,  to  try 
to  develop  within  him  those  sentiments  that  are  summed 
up  in  the  words  "duty"  and  "responsibility."  If  these 
sentiments  cannot  be  aroused,  lawlessness  may  be  ex- 
pected, and  the  individual  is  usually  destined  to  become 
a  social  nuisance. 

Attempts  have  been  made  frequently  to  outline  modi- 
fications of  the  secondary-school  curriculum  to  accord 
better  with  the  psychological  aspects  of  the  adolescent 
period.  In  many  respects  these  attempts  have  been  less 
effective  than  hoped  for,  because  we  are  still  ignorant  of 
much  that  we  should  know  of  the  intellectual  develop- 
ment of  the  period.  A  sample  instance  is  seen  in  vari- 
ous proposals  for  the  modification  of  high  school  science 
to  fit  the  needs  and  interests  of  high  school  students. 
Thus,  in  Hall's  "Adolescence"  (vol.  II,  chap.  XII)  will 
be  found  an  extended  argument  against  the  prevailing 
type  of  instruction  in  this  field  as  being  too  technical, 
too  quantitative,  too  much  restricted  to  the  logical  pres- 
entation of  pure  science,  and  too  much  dominated  by 
the  college  entrance  demands.  For  this  would  be  substi- 
tuted especially  popular  and  applied  aspects  of  modern 
science,  with  considerable  insistence  on  the  lives  and 
work  of  the  men  who  have  discovered  and  applied  the 
great  ideas  of  science.  In  this  instance  scarcely  any 
one  doubts  that  high  school  boys  are  interested  in  popu- 
lar science,  and  that  most  of  them  would  prefer  to  dab- 
ble with  kites,  photography,  wireless  apparatus,  and  the 
raising  of  guinea-pigs  than  to  solve  equations  illustrat- 
ing the  laws  of  action  of  wind  on  surfaces,  or  learn  the 
formulas  underlying  the  use  of  a  developer,  or  seek  to 


134  HIGH  SCHOOL  ADMINISTRATION 

understand  the  detail  of  Mendel's  law,  but  the  question 
might  still  be  raised:  may  not  the  more  rigid,  logical, 
quantitative,  systematic  presentation  of  the  older  text- 
books retain  some  merit  when  we  look  forward  to  the 
ultimate  outcomes  of  the  pursuit  of  knowledge  in  the 
secondary  school?  These  and  coimtless  similar  prob- 
lems as  to  choice  of  subject-matter  and  method  of  pres- 
entation cannot  be  settled  forthwith  by  inquiring  merely: 
what  would  boys  and  girls  prefer  to  be  taught  and  in 
what  way?  What  we  really  need  is  a  series  of  educa- 
tional experiments  in  which  the  merits  of  different  bod- 
ies of  subject-matter  and  different  methods  of  teaching 
each  of  these  bodies  are  ascertained  by  trial  under 
proper  conditions,  and  with  a  wide  range  of  criteria  of 
excellence  in  mind.  One  criterion,  and  possibly  the 
foremost,  would,  of  course,  be:  how  well  does  this  sub- 
ject and  this  method  of  teaching  it  seem  to  fit  the  mental 
needs  and  interests  of  the  average  secondary-school  stu- 
dent? 

Another  illustration  of  the  same  problem  is  found  in 
the  problem  of  choosing  a  foreign  language  for  the  first- 
year  work  of  the  high  school  student.  Latin  has  by 
long  custom  been  generally  accorded  the  place  of  honor, 
yet  many  psychologists  believe  that  there  is  a  distinct 
emergence  at  about  the  age  of  fourteen  of  interest  in 
spoken  language — distinct  enough,  at  any  rate,  as  to 
make  many  boys  and  girls  want  to  "pick  up"  a  smat- 
tering of  familiarity  with  some  tongue  other  than  the 
vernacular.  Since  Httle  or  no  stress  is  laid  on  the  use 
of  Latin  in  conversation,  might  it  not  be  much  better 
to  begin,  say,  with  French,  and  thus  utilize  the  interest 
in  speaking  a  new  language?  "But,"  we  may  answer, 
"French  is  easier  if  taken  after  Latin,  and  Latin  affords 
a  fine  chance  to  drill  the  student  in  sentence  construc- 
tion and  grammar,  much  of  which  he  failed  to  learn  in 


THE  ADOLESCENT  PERIOD  135 

the  grades."  Here,  again,  why  not  make  a  crucial  ex- 
periment and  measure  the  results  in  every  way  that  we 
can  devise? 

A  final  sample  problem:  does  what  we  know  of  ado- 
lescence indicate  that  boys  and  girls  should  be  educated 
in  the  same  school  and  in  the  same  studies,  or  not  ?  No 
reflection  is  needed  to  understand  that  this  problem  is 
a  complex  one;  so  much  depends  upon  conditions.  For 
the  average  small  community  two  high  schools,  one  for 
each  sex,  are  out  of  the  question;  even  in  most  cities  the 
high  schools  meet  geographical  needs  and  cannot  be 
used  for  sex  segregation.  Shall  we,  then,  use  the  same 
building  but  different  subjects?  Or,  if  the  same  sub- 
jects, shall  the  sexes  recite  in  different  sections?  Or 
shall  the  course  of  study  be  the  same  in  some  parts  and 
different  in  other  parts?  If  so,  which  parts  shall  be 
different  ? 

This  is  not  the  place  to  try  to  answer  these  questions 
in  detail.  It  may  be  pointed  out,  however,  that  the 
notion  that  prevailed  not  so  long  ago  that  girls  were  in- 
capable of  keeping  pace  with  boys  in  their  high  school 
studies  has  been  exploded  quite  completely;  on  the 
contrary,  the  average  scholarship  is  almost  invari- 
ably found  to  be  better  in  girls  than  in  boys  (possibly 
because  the  girls  are  more  docile  or  more  interested  or 
less  distracted  by  outside  appeals  or  merely  possessed 
with  somewhat  more  retentive  memories). 

Again,  it  may  be  pointed  out  that  not  too  much  stress 
need  to  be  laid  on  the  notion — fairly  prevalent,  I  think 
— that  girls  tend  to  suffer  in  physical  development  if 
forced  to  take  the  same  work  as  boys  and  at  the  boys' 
pace.  It  may  be  admitted  that  as  a  group  girls  are 
more  apt  to  worry  about  their  school  work  and  are  more 
incited  by  competition  for  grades  and  promotion.  The 
"grinds"  in  most  schools  are  oftener  found  among  the 


136  HIGH  SCHOOL  ADMINISTRATION 

girls.  It  may  be  admitted,  also,  that  the  monthly 
physiological  disturbances  to  which  girls  are  subject 
render  them  more  exposed  than  boys  to  physical  dam- 
age from  overstudy.  But,  on  the  other  hand,  most  high 
school  teachers  seem  agreed  that  these  cases  in  which, 
to  use  Huxley's  celebrated  phrase,  we  "spoil  a  good 
mother  to  make  a  poor  grammarian,"  are  pretty  excep- 
tional, and  that  far  oftener  girls,  and  boys,  too,  who 
break  down  in  health  during  their  secondary  school 
work  have  simply  paid  the  penalty  for  breaking  the 
rules  of  hygiene  outside  the  school.  Late  hours,  social 
excesses,  pampered  appetites,  and  the  zeal  of  misguided 
parents  in  overburdening  their  children  with  access6ry 
tasks  would  appear  to  account  for  the  development  of 
most  cases  of  neurasthenia  and  general  fatigue  in  the 
high  school  student  body. 

Finally,  it  is  evident  that  the  determination  of  the 
degree  of  differentiation  between  the  work  of  boys  and 
of  girls  is  in  part  a  sociological  question.  Much  de- 
pends upon  the  ultimate  career  of  each  sex.  Thus,  in 
so  far  as  the  natural  and  normal  centre  of  interest  and 
activity  of  woman  would  seem  to  be  the  home,  it  ap- 
pears to  most  persons  self-evident  that  instruction  in 
the  multifarious  aspects  of  home-making  would  be  par- 
ticularly pertinent  to  young  women.  Likewise,  in  so 
far  as  women  are  likely  to  share  the  interests  and  activi- 
ties of  men,  it  would  appear  equally  self-evident  that 
they  need  to  be  versed  in  these  activities,  too. 

Whatever  may  be  the  ultimate  decision  on  the  dif- 
ferentiation of  the  curriculums  offered  the  two  sexes, 
the  experience  of  most  colleges  and  of  many  high  schools 
indicates  that  on  the  whole  better  work  is  done  by  both 
sexes  when  they  recite  in  separate  classes. 


THE  JUNIOR  HIGH  SCHOOL* 

The  junior  high  school  movement  is  sweeping  the 
country.  It  marks  a  general  educational  reawakening, 
renaissance,  reconstruction.  This  association  has  made 
it  first  a  field  of  investigation,  then  a  propaganda  and 
slogan,  now  a  constructive  programme  for  development. 
The  department  of  superintendence  has  embodied  it  in  its 
resolutions.  The  United  States  Bureau  stands  commit- 
ted to  it.  Many  state  departments  are  making  it  state- 
wide. Large  cities  are  adopting  it  wholesale.  Small 
cities  in  impressive  numbers  and  with  impressive  admin- 
istrative originality  are  making  their  own  ingenious  ad- 
justments to  the  idea.  Surveyors  of  all  kinds  can  think 
of  no  recommendable  school  policy  that  does  not  specifi- 
cally incorporate  junior  high  school  features.  Local  city 
politics  finds  it  useful,  popular.  All  sorts  of  propagan- 
dists like  it.  Co-operating  agencies  affiliating  with  public 
schools  (library  associations,  for  example)  see  in  it  some- 
thing promising.  University  departments  of  education 
and  normal  schools  and  all  other  agencies  for  preparing 
teachers  are  finding  new  aspects  of  professional  prepara- 
tion for  this  type  of  teaching,  new  educational  ideals 
toward  which  to  point  the  intending  teacher.  Text- 
book houses  with  the  expected  enterprise  are  announc- 
ing new  junior  high  school  series  of  text-books,  heralding, 
they  claim,  an  education  with  new  and  invigorating  in- 
gredients. Teachers'  employment  agencies  have  begun 
to  use  the  new  term  and  to  recommend  for  positions 
those  with  the  newly  required  qualifications.     Standing 

'  Address  before  the  general  session  of  National  Education  Asso- 
ciation, July  6,  1 916,  New  York  City. 

137 


138  HIGH  SCHOOL  ADMINISTRATION 

"expert"  commissions  of  inquiry  (your  own  national 
commission  on  Reorganization  of  Secondary  Education 
and  the  North  Central  Association  Commission  on  Unit 
Courses  and  Curricula)  are  preparing  large  areas,  in 
fact  the  whole  country,  for  the  intricate  kinds  of  inner 
readjustments  the  adoption  of  this  fundamental  change 
in  school  policy  calls  for.  There  are  now  educational 
courses  in  our  colleges  and  normal  schools  in  the  junior 
high  school  problems,  given  by  "experts."  There  is  a 
literature,  a  terminology,  a  lingo,  a  cult,  an  educational 
philosophy,  an  educational  party. 

Recently  a  well-known  educator  was  invited  to 
address  a  state  teachers'  association  by  debating  the 
affirmative  of  the  proposition  that  junior  high  schools 
could  be  made  an  integral  part  of  our  public-school  sys- 
tem. He  replied  that  he  would  debate  this  question 
anywhere  if  there  could  be  foimd  any  one  who  would 
consent  to  take  the  other  side.  One  was  found  to  make 
the  sacrifice.  They  still  exist.  What  is  more  difficult 
to  find  is  their  real  objections  to  the  fimdamental  educa- 
tional ideals  we  have  come  to  associate  with,  indeed  to 
identify  with,  the  junior  high  school  idea. 

There  are,  however,  we  must  continue  to  realize,  two 
distinct  educational  parties  with  genuinely  opposed  plat- 
forms— unlike,  you  will  notice,  our  present  political  par- 
ties. One  party  banks  on  tradition  as  such.  It  thinks 
our  educational  history  has  developed  by  some  inevitable 
law  of  growth,  that  it  now  represents  an  institution 
possessed  of  virtues  which  come  from  such  bona-fide 
and  vast  experimentation  as  has  characterized  that  of 
ovu*  educational  machinery.  This  party  is  historically 
minded.  What  we  have  represents  about  what  we 
should  have.  The  fate  of  schools  is  in  the  hands  of  des- 
tiny.    The  architecture  of  our  present  administrative 


THE  JUNIOR  HIGH  SCHOOL  139 

structure,  therefore,  has  something  sacredly  American 
about  it.  This  party  is  conservative  and  has  seen  by 
experience  just  what  ordinary  school-keeping  is  and 
just  how  difficult  and  almost  hopeless  a  thing  it  is 
actually  to  renovate  the  whole  plant.  They,  too,  know 
the  educational  machinery  of  the  other  national  educa- 
tional systems.  They  are  impressed  with  the  fact  that 
these  great  and  so-called  civilized  nations  have  not  ac- 
cepted the  sorts  of  educational  innovations  and  astound- 
ing extensions  and  differentiations  of  functions  which 
such  a  fanciful  conception  as  the  junior  high  school  sug- 
gests— and  really  means  to  its  proponents.  Democracy 
to  this  party  means  as  much  democracy  as,  in  the  judg- 
ment of  its  leaders,  the  teachers  and  the  scholars  and 
other  participants  in  the  educational  process  can  stand 
without  practice.  They  start  with  the  school  machiaery 
and,  thinking  in  its  terms,  allow  as  much  of  democracy 
as  its  terms  will  connote  without  too  much  stretching. 

There  is  another  party.  This  second  party  begins 
with  democracy  and  its  needs,  and  thinks  into  this  social 
and  industrial  setting  just  the  kind  of  education  it  seems 
to  require.  This  party  is  made  up  of  the  more  radically 
minded  temperamentally.  They  think  with  amazing 
confidence  of  what  the  educative  process  is  capable  of 
becoming.  As  with  their  modern  conception  of  democ- 
racy, so  they  start  with  a  modern  conception  of  the 
psychology  of  educative  processes,  that  they  are  expres- 
sive processes,  that  knowledge  is  a  real  process,  a  real 
method  of  expression,  and  hence  that  all  school  exer- 
cises, such  as  reciting,  studying,  student  activities, 
auditorium  performances,  shop  trainings,  laboratory 
technics,  "projects,"  "socialized"  class-meetings,  and 
other  new  and  more  intimate  sorts  of  exercises  \vith  the 
supposedly  hopelessly  academicized  "humanity"  sub- 


140  HIGH  SCHOOL  ADMINISTRATION 

jects  must  smack  of  realness.  Thinking  thus  of  the 
entire  educative  process,  this  party  tends  to  think  of 
new  and  novel  and  often,  also,  confusing  ways  of  giving 
opportunity  to  these  new  demands — ways  that  make 
the  old  type  of  formal  school-keeping  itself  look  un- 
natural.   The  junior  high  school  is  their  opportunity. 

With  the  new  political  and  civic  ideal  and  the  new 
psychological  goals  we  have  this  party  actually  adopt- 
ing a  new  philosophy  of  life,  an  "educational  realism," 
a  new  scale  of  values,  a  new  theory  of  what  constitutes 
reality.  Theological  dogma  and,  in  this  case,  literary 
formalism  cease  to  be  the  creators,  or  carriers  of  our 
realities.  Politics  and  science  and  industry  and  war 
make  a  new  realm  of  values,  point  a  new  goal  of  educa- 
tion. 

With  this  the  new  party  has  also  become  imbued  with 
the  notion  that  our  ideal  of  universal  education  is  low, 
and  our  method  of  allowing  a  wrong  selective  principle 
to  work  in  creating  an  8th-grade  dead-Kne  is  un-Ameri- 
can. This  new  party  rejects  all  European  notions  of 
the  necessarily  selective  character  of  secondary  educa- 
tion. This  party  wipes  out  every  distinction  between 
elementary  or  common  school  education  and  public 
secondary  school  education.  It  gives  in  the  whole  his- 
tory of  the  world  a  new  definition  of  secondary  education. 
It  creates  a  junior  high  school  transition  stage  which  will 
tide  over  the  gap  which  has  baffled  all  dreamers  of  uni- 
versal education  since  the  day-dreams  of  Horace  Mann. 
With  this  new  ideal  of  a  new  universality  and  non- 
selective education  reaching  beyond  the  8th  grade  have 
come  economic  conditions  which  make  practically  im- 
mediately realizable  this  pushing  upward  and  this  liber- 
alizing and  enriching  of  the  common  school's  instruc- 
tional programme. 


THE  JUNIOR  HIGH  SCHOOL  141 

One  other  factor  operating  in  the  minds  of  this  new 
party  regarding  the  immediate  possibility  of  graduating 
from  the  junior  high  school  rather  than  from  the  8th 
grade  as  the  rule  is  the  realization  that  in  academic 
achievement  the  American  boy  at  the  end  of  the  9th 
grade  has  not  by  two  years  done  the  equivalent  of  the 
French  or  German  boy  who  finishes  the  eighth  year  in 
the  common  school. 

On  the  other  end  of  the  reorganized  secondary  school 
in  America  is  to  be  noted  the  fact  that  in  the  present 
stage  of  our  educational  development  the  public  high 
school  must  take  on  for  the  state's  necessity  some  pro- 
fessional or  vocational  functions  such  as  teacher  train- 
ing, practical  engineering,  etc.  All  this  upper  extension 
is  bound  up  with  the  junior  high  school  unit,  as  it  is 
supposed  to  function  in  the  new  complete  system.  This 
new  party  possesses  educational  courage  to  the  point, 
perhaps,  of  recklessness,  stands  for  experimental  meth- 
ods to  the  point  of  extravagance,  for  the  conscious  exer- 
cise of  new  mental  processes  and  for  the  vigorous  exten- 
sion to  new  boundaries  of  its  field  of  service. 

What  is  meant  by  the  junior  high  school  ?  One  writer 
thinks  the  junior  high  school  is  a  school  made  up  of  the 
upper  grades  (7  th  and  8  th)  and  the  lowest  grade  (9th) 
of  the  present  high  school,  and  "organized  after  the 
plan  of  a  high  school  as  regards  curriculum,  nature 
and  method  of  recitation,  instruction  and  supervision." 
This,  the  author  says,  is  the  "real  junior  high  school — ■ 
the  school  of  to-morrow."  Another  says  it  is  a  school 
of  these  same  grades  or  even  of  the  7th  and  8th  grades 
"which  offers  regular  high  school  subjects"  and  also 
"prevocational  education"  whose  purpose  of  existence 
is  "congregation  and  segregation";  congregation  from 
many  surrounding  elementary  schools  and  segregatioii 


142  HIGH  SCHOOL  ADMINISTRATION 

from  them  into  a  new  atmosphere  where  indeed,  for 
educational  purposes,  different  groups  of  these  pupils 
can  be  given  different  trainings  in  certain  subjects. 
Neither  of  these  definitions  is  at  all  adequate  to  the 
variety  of  junior  high  schools  in  existence,  to  the  distin- 
guishing purpose  of  junior  high  schools,  or  to  what 
should  characterize  the  ideal  junior  high  school.  De- 
fining the  junior  high  school  in  the  narrow  but  more 
nearly  correct  sense  as  a  special  institution,  we  should 
say  that,  in  intent,  it  is  that  portion  or  department  of 
the  public-school  system  above  the  6th  elementary 
grade,  including  the  7th  and  8th,  and  usually  the  9th 
also,  which  is  organized  under  a  distinctive  internal 
management  with  a  special  principal  and  teaching  staff, 
or  under  a  six-year  secondary  school  department  divided 
into  a  junior  and  a  senior  high  school  of  three  years 
each,  with  one  general  management.  Such  a  school  in 
these  first  three  years  provides  for  departmental  teach- 
ing, partially  differentiated  curriculums,  for  prevoca- 
tional  instruction  and  for  systems  of  educational  advice 
and  guidance  and  for  supervised  study.  No  definition 
which  merely  says  it  is  an  institution  which  shifts  the 
7th  and  8th  grade  boys  from  elementary  school  to  high 
school  properly  represents  the  ideal  of  this  school. 

This  is  after  aU,  however,  but  a  narrow  and  technical 
definition  of  the  junior  high  school.  The  adequate  defi- 
nition must  be  in  terms  of  the  profoimd  meaning  of  the 
movement — if  it  is  profound.  The  junior  high  school  in 
this  deeper  sense  suggests  the  breaking  up  of  our  ele- 
mentary-secondary public-school  system  into  smaller, 
more  intelligible,  and  less  unwieldy  administrative  and 
curriculum  units.  It  is  but  a  rediscovery  of  what  Euro- 
pean nations,  in  their  more  intensive  cultivation  of  the 
restricted  and  selected  field  of  secondary   education, 


THE  JUNIOR  HIGH  SCHOOL  143 

have  found  to  be  an  administratively  and  pedagogically 
necessary  arrangement.  Thinking  from  the  point  of 
view  of  American  democracy,  we  have  first  thought  all 
into  the  secondary  system  as  a  matter  of  citizen's  right. 
We  have  not  thought  yet  sufficiently  of  how  to  group 
and  adjust  our  administrative  machinery  and  instruc- 
tional programme  to  them  now  that  we  have  them 
enrolled.  European  school-builders  and  curriculum- 
makers,  thinking  not  of  how  to  populate  secondary 
schools  but  how  to  select,  have  had  their  genius  chal- 
lenged not  with  a  condition  of  democracy  but  with 
the  problem  of  how  best  to  organize  logically,  and 
hence  economically,  the  various  subject-matters  offered 
throughout  the  twelve  years  of  the  complete  selective 
secondary  school  period.  They  are  ahead  of  us,  there- 
fore, in  economic  methods  of  breaking  up  into  curricu- 
lum units  the  twelve-year  stretch  of  education  which  we 
in  America  wish  to  make  as  nearly  universal  as  possible. 
The  French  "cycle"  scheme  for  curriculum  organization 
represents  an  established  principle  of  curriculum  con- 
struction which  the  junior  high  school  promoters  have 
been  quick  to  adopt  in  theory.  To  effectively  practise 
this  fimdamental  principle  will  take  time.  A  reconcep- 
tion  of  subject-matter  of  pubHc  education  in  terms  of 
one  six-year  elementary  functioning  unit,  one  interme- 
diate three-year  transition  period,  partaking  in  content, 
method,  administration,  and  school  atmosphere  of  both 
the  elementary  and  the  secondary,  and  one  three-year 
period  of  genuinely  secondary  work,  is  fundamental  in- 
deed. Nothing  less  than  this  is  the  real  meaning  of  the 
junior  high  school.  It  is  no  wonder  that  the  courageous 
who  have  accepted  the  educational  challenge  of  this 
opportunity  are  floundering. 

Despite  these  bewildering  and  often  vague  aspects  of 


144  HIGH   SCHOOL  ADMINISTRATION 

the  movement  as  a  whole  we  are  already  able  to  draw 
an  attractive  picture  of  the  modern  junior  high  school 
which  is  to  be. 

It  is  the  American  common  school  breaking  into  the 
secondary  field.  To  appreciate  the  democratic  signifi- 
cance of  this  we  have  but  to  imagine  the  Folkschule 
graduate  invited  to  go  ahead  in  the  Gymnasium. 

The  pupil  population  of  the  junior  high  school  will 
include  not  only  those  now  in  7th  and  8th  and  9th 
grades,  but  all  of  these  ages  now  "overage"  in  the  ele- 
mentary six  grades  and  all  over  fourteen  who  for  any 
reason  are  out  of  school.  It  is  a  pupil  democracy. 
Russia  has  the  most  advanced  stage  to-day,  and  she  has 
the  most  elective  and  exclusive  literary  cliques.  She 
also  has  the  fewest  theatres  and  audiences,  and  the  few- 
est elementary  and  secondary  pupils — all  drawn  from 
the  upper  classes.  The  Great  General  Public  in  our 
country  in  education,  as  in  drama,  pays  the  piper,  and 
its  pressing  needs  must  call  the  tune — ragtime  till  it  can 
be  refined  into  Beethoven.  So  the  Great  General  Pub- 
lic is  now  dominating  the  schools.  It  is  taking  over  sec- 
ondary education  as  well  as  elementary.  With  it,  of 
course,  must  come  fundamental  changes,  broadside  re- 
adjustments. Our  clientele  has  at  last  become  this  very 
same  great,  new,  eager,  childlike,  tasteless,  standardless, 
honest,  crude  "General  Public."  As  for  blaming  any- 
body— for  the  schoolmaster  at  least  it  is  poor  fun  to 
blame  such  a  great  primal  force  as  democracy.  So 
much  for  the  pupil  population  of  our  junior  high  school. 

Its  material  plant  has  not  been  reduced  to  one  type. 
However,  these  buildings  are  being  planned  for  strictly 
junior  high  school  purposes.  Especially  are  they  being 
so  built  as  to  emphasize  flexibility  in  the  administering 
of  instruction,  shop  facilities  for  prevocational  education 


THE  JUNIOR  HIGH  SCHOOL  145 

of  all  varieties,  physical  education,  general  business 
fundamentals  of  both  skill  and  information,  concrete 
acquaintance  with  the  world  of  fine  and  home  arts, 
auditorium  and  directed  study  facilities,  etc.  The  pro- 
portionate space  given  to  shops,  kitchens,  cafeteria,  print- 
ing equipments,  laboratories,  gymnasiums,  swimming- 
pools,  assembly-rooms,  real  junior  high  school  libraries 
and  museums  is  much  greater  than  one  finds  in  the 
ordiifary  school-buildings.  There  must  be  a  junior 
high  school  architecture.  These  buildings  must  be  also 
community-centre  plants  of  a  unique  sort,  not  parallel- 
ing the  senior  high  school  functions  in  these  respects. 
In  addition  to  these  features  of  the  material  plant  we 
may  expect  to  find  increasingly  art  rooms  and  spacious 
grounds  and  other  appointments  in  keeping  with  this 
critical  three-year  unit  in  the  reorganized  public-school 
system. 

The  school  atmosphere  will  not  be  either  elementary  or 
secondary,  as  we  now  know  it.  It  will  be  a  junior  high 
school  atmosphere  or  it  will  be  a  failure.  It  either  has 
its  unique  character  and  tone  or  it  is  but  a  sham  solu- 
tion of  a  very  vexed  problem  of  public-school  reform. 

We  shall  have  better  teachers  and  better  supervision  and 
more  men  teachers  and  a  more  pointed,  focussed  curricu- 
lum. More  men  will  become  junior  high  school  princi- 
pals, and  there  will  be  a  more  nearly  divided  teaching 
staff  on  the  lines  of  sex.  Starting  a  junior  high  school 
creates  a  situation  calling  for  a  selection  of  high-grade 
teachers  to  whom  to  intrust  such  an  institutional  ex- 
periment in  a  system  of  education.  Better  salaries  will 
figure,  broader  training  will  be  at  a  premium,  years  of 
experience  will  count,  and  those  with  deepest  under- 
standing of  youth  will  be  selected.  Comparative  edu- 
cational results  and  records  of  all  sorts  will  result. 


146  raCH  SCHOOL  ADMINISTRATION 

The  six-grade  elementary  units  in  buildings  to  them- 
selves will  now  be  cleared  of  all  but  the  young  children, 
their  single  curriculum  purpose  will  be  clarified  and  their 
obstacles  in  the  way  of  average  pupils  will  be  out  of  the 
way.  This  policy  of  "b'fting"  the  overage  from  the  six- 
grade  elementary  school  will  have  a  wholesome  effect 
upon  all  entrance  requirements  standards  for  admission 
to  the  next  higher  stage.  Likewise  those  who  have 
spent  three  years  in  the  junior  high  school  with  its  now 
increased  exploration  faciUties  and  flexible  curriculum 
ojBferings  will  and  should  naturally  expect  to  be  passed 
on  to  something  in  the  senior  high  school  department 
which  is  more  specifically  designed  to  fit  them  for  some 
more  definite  sort  of  life-work.  Then  possibly  even  the 
colleges  may  get  from  all  this  a  suggestion  of  an  educa- 
tional guiding  principle  for  making  their  own  admission 
requirements. 

As  to  subjects  and  single  courses,  new  and  old,  I  have 
already  referred  and  to  progressive  text-book  makers 
who  are  even  now  on  the  job.  Every  single  subject  now 
found  in  the  three  grades  concerned  will  undergo — in- 
deed, is  already  undergoing — transformation.  New 
principles  of  organizing  so-called  general  courses  in  all 
the  main  lines  of  junior  high  school  work,  EngHsh,  mathe- 
matics, general  science,  general  social  science,  foreign 
languages,  practical  arts,  commercial  work — all  presage 
an  educational  era  for  the  making  of  better  pedagogi- 
cally  constructed  "units  of  instruction,"  topical  and 
problem  goals  of  intermediate  education  which  is  going 
surely  to  point  us  to  new  meanings  of  educational 
method. 

As  to  curriculum  organization  of  our  courses  we  are 
at  least  now  to  have  design  where  there  was  none. 
Some  one  has  said  what  he  misses  in  7th  and  8th  grade 
work  is  design.     The  junior  high  school  organization 


THE  JUNIOR  HIGH  SCHOOL  147 

creates  a  situation  in  which  instruction  without  curricu- 
lum purpose  will  be  painful  when  in  evidence.  In  short, 
we  are  forced  to  search  for  bases  for  our  schemes  of 
training.  Here  we  may  have  curriculum  differentiation 
or  we  may  not.  We  may  differentiate  on  vocational 
grounds,  or  on  those  purely  of  individual  differences,  or 
on  none  at  all.  The  thiag  is  that  we  have  got  to  face 
the  problem  of  whether  we  can  point  our  instruction  of 
these  grades  in  any  definable  direction.  Indeed,  cur- 
riculum differentiation  is  the  crucial  issue,  whatever  we 
do  about  it.  We  have  already  in  our  crudely  conceived 
prevocational  education  begxm  to  adjust  om*  instruc- 
tion in  this  prudent  way  to  some  sort  of  inevitable  in- 
dustrial test  to  come  in  the  life  of  the  junior  high  school 
pupil,  saving  him  all  the  while  from  narrow  specializa- 
tion. Already,  also,  we  have  become  increasingly  con- 
vinced, from  our  crude  scales  and  tests,  of  the  consistent 
evidences  of  the  inherent  and  universal  natural  differ- 
entiation among  these  children.  No  "common  ele- 
ments" can  produce  like  effects.  Here  it  takes  uncom- 
mon elements  to  produce  similar  effects.  Future  prdb- 
able  careers  suggest  some  flexibility  in  our  courses;  this 
relatively  constant  proportion  of  poor,  medium,  and  supe- 
rior students  reinforces  the  suggestion. 

A  mere  tinkering  with  7th  and  8th  grade  subjects  in 
the  old  environment  and  with  an  unchanged  teaching 
staff  and  supervision  cannot  do  what  we  already  know 
must  be  done.  These  internal  matters  of  educational 
reorganization  offer  opportunities  which  must  not  be 
squandered.  The  psychological  value  of  this  junior 
high  school  is  that  it  provides  just  this  favorable  new 
situation  for  seriously  conceived  plans  closely  related  to 
a  clear  educational  philosophy  of  administration.  If 
the  junior  school  is  anything  it  is  the  three-year  section 
of  our  public-school  system,  which,  with  its  newly  de- 


148  HIGH  SCHOOL  ADMINISTRATION 

veloped  types  of  "generalized"  subject-matter,  "proj- 
ect" and  other  like  methods  of  teaching,  democratic 
and  free  policy  of  school  management,  and  intimate  and 
intensive  study  of  the  individualities  of  pupils,  seeks  to 
direct  pupils  in  finding  themselves  by  exercising  their 
various  traits,  exploiting  their  various  aptitudes,  and 
making  possible  intelligent  choice  of  any  special  sort  of 
definite  training  which  may  be  followed  in  the  senior 
high  school  or  in  higher  educational  institutions.  It  is 
our  clumsy,  crude,  and  still  more  or  less  vague  but  yet 
unmistakable  attempt  to  shunt  our  educational  ma- 
chinery during  this  particular  three-year  period  into  the 
field  of  diagnosing  and  consciously  exercising,  by  means 
of  more  various  and  more  liberally  conceived  kinds  of 
trainings,  the  individualities  of  pupils. 

Into  this  picture  of  the  modern  junior  high  school,  in 
addition  to  these  larger  features  of  the  material  plant, 
the  principal  and  the  special  teacher,  the  new  entrance 
requirements,  the  new  and  renovated  old  subjects,  the 
curriculum  diflferentiations,  simplified  organization,  dis- 
cipline adjusted  to  early  adolescence,  and  equipment, 
must  go  such  features  as  directed  school  and  home  study, 
systems  of  organized  educational  and  strictly  vocational 
guidance,  lengtJiened  school-day  and  school-year,  carefully 
supervised  student  activities,  and  card  catalogues  of  indi- 
vidual differences  recorded  in  such  a  way  as  to  affect  the 
daily  administration  of  the  school.  Ask  ourselves  how 
many  of  these  features  of  a  school  are  possible  in  Euro- 
pean systems  and  we  begin  to  appreciate  the  American- 
ism of  the  junior  high  school  idea.  We  understand 
neither  Americanism  nor  the  junior  high  school  thor- 
oughly at  present,  yet  we  can  believe  in  them.  They 
are  both  struggling  for  expression. 

What  are  the  criticisms?  It  is  urged  that  at  the  age 
of  twelve  there  are  no  radical  changes  into  adolescence 


THE  JUNIOR  mCH  SCHOOL  149 

as  one  notes  at  fourteen.  But  the  very  idea  of  a  junior 
high  school  is  to  work  gradually  into  secondary  meth- 
ods and  subjects.  It  is  urged  that  we  are  creating  by 
this  three  curriculum  unit  arrangement  three  water- 
tight compartments  in  our  school  system  instead  of 
two,  and  making  it  therefore  possible  to  subdivide  still 
further.  This  argument  fails  obviously  as  an  argument. 
Opponents  think  the  change  necessarily  means  com- 
pletely differentiated  curriculums  from  the  first  junior 
high  school  year,  failing  entirely  to  distinguish  different 
bases  for  flexibility  in  a  course  of  training,  and  failing  to 
recognize  all  degrees  of  partially  and  progressively  dif- 
ferentiated lines  of  work.  Again  it  is  to  be  feared,  we 
are  told,  that  if  we  segregate  the  six-year  elementary 
school  "elementary  graduation"  will  mark  the  natural 
dropping  of  place  for  the  majority — this  in  the  face  of 
many  figures  to  the  contrary  from  widely  scattered 
junior  high  schools.  Forgetting  the  fact  that  the  new 
plan  of  entrance  to  some  part  of  the  junior  high  school 
will  be  in  force  the  opponents  argue,  too,  that  the  over- 
age will,  when  they  reach  the  compulsory  age  (in  what- 
ever low  grade  they  are),  tend  to  drop  out.  Instead 
they  will  be  happy  and  adjusted  in  the  junior  high  school 
itself  before  any  such  condition  prevails.  It  is  argued 
that  general  reorganization  of  our  schools  must  follow 
any  such  step  as  starting  a  junior  school.  It  will,  and 
this  is  the  best  argument  for  it.  They  are  even  speak- 
ing of  cost — forgetting  the  striking  feature  it  possesses 
of  more  fairly  equalizing  things  by  raising  the  per  capita 
in  the  upper  part  of  elementary  organization.  They 
claim  that  grammar-school  teachers  are  now  better 
teachers  than  high  school  teachers,  and  that  grammar- 
school  conditions  are  better  school  conditions,  and  that 
all  this  is  an  argument  against  cutting  the  7th  and  8th 
grades  away  from  the  elementary  school  and  engrafting 


150  HIGH  SCHOOL  ADMINISTRATION 

them  upon  the  high  school — overlooking  the  fact  that 
this  is  not  what  is  proposed.  Other  arguments  are  that 
the  plan  is  better  fitted  for  the  city  schools  than  for  the 
small  schools  and  that,  therefore,  credentials  admitting 
pupils  from  the  smaller  to  the  larger  schools  would  be 
made  more  difficult;  and  that  children  driven  from  the 
common  school  earlier  will  be  "sorted"  into  differen- 
tiated courses,  according  to  their  probable  future  em- 
ployment. Such  arguments  are  doubtless  offered  by 
their  authors  merely  because  they  must  offer  some  sort 
and  find  these  the  only  available  ones.  It  is  very  clear 
that  they  do  not  touch  vitally  the  chief  educational 
problems  genuinely  constructive  high  school  admin- 
istrators are  facing. 

The  junior  high  school  is  more  than  anything  else  a 
term  adopted  to  denote  design  in  our  educational  organ- 
ization and  administration.  It  means  that  something 
other  than  tradition  and  accident  has  come  to  influence 
our  development.  It  means  some  sort  of  uniqueness 
both  in  the  pedagogy  of  school  subjects  new  and  old, 
and  in  the  spirit  of  our  administration.  It  means  the 
Americanization  of  a  world-tested  principle  of  curricu- 
lum-building. It  means  flexibility  and,  therefore,  sci- 
ence in  the  manipulation  of  our  total  school  plants. 
Meaning  in  a  restricted  sense  reorganization  of  the  three 
intermediate  grades  it  in  reality  means  reorganization  of 
the  entire  public-school  system.  It  has  as  a  term  pre- 
vailed because  of  the  spirited  championship  of  its  ideals 
by  effective  educational  leaders  in  the  face  of  as  deter- 
mined, even  more  violent,  opposition. 

Why  does  it  stand  for  us  to-day  as  our  chief  educa- 
tional problem?  In  the  first  place,  because  it,  like  fire, 
though  indispensable  in  the  right  place  and  in  the  right 
hands,  is  still  dangerous;  because  it  is  misunderstood, 


THE  JUNIOR  HIGH  SCHOOL  151 

because  its  proponents  exaggerate  its  immediate  values, 
because  like  all  real  reforms  it  really  cannot  be  fully 
understood  by  any  one  at  the  present  stage  of  its  evolu- 
tion— it  is  our  prime  educational  problem  because,  of 
course,  the  junior  high  school  is  the  adopted  caption  for 
an  institution  which,  whatever  we  think  of  it,  is  spread- 
ing everywhere.  The  junior  high  school  in  its  name 
and  independent  physical  existence  and  form  of  organ- 
ization is  but  the  outward  manifestation  of  a  sound 
new  philosophy  of  education.  It  is  the  name  we  have 
come  to  associate  with  new  ideas,  promotion,  new  meth- 
ods of  preventing  elimination,  new  devices  for  moving 
selected  groups  through  subject-matter  at  different 
rates,  higher  compulsory  school  age,  new  and  thorough 
analyses  (social,  economic,  psychological)  of  pupil  popu- 
lations, enriched  courses,  varied  and  partially  differ- 
entiated curriculum  offerings,  scientifically  directed 
study  practice,  new  schemes  for  all  sorts  of  educational 
guidance  (educational  in  narrow  sense,  and  also  moral, 
temperamental,  and  vocational),  new  psychological 
characterizations  of  types  in  approaching  the  paramount 
school  problem  of  individual  differences,  new  school- 
year,  new  school-day,  new  kind  of  class  exercise,  new 
kinds  of  laboratory  and  library  equipment  and  utiliza- 
tion, and  new  kinds  of  intimate  community  service.  It 
has  somehow  fired  our  educational  imagination. 

It  is  a  part  of  our  educational  philosophy  already. 
Even  its  vigorous  opponents  have  done  the  cause  valu- 
able service  and  made  real  though  so  far  negative  con- 
tributions. From  now  on,  however,  it  would  seem  that 
all  educators  should  pull  with  the  current,  and  construc- 
tively help  clarify  the  real  "junior  high  school  idea." 


JUNIOR  HIGH  SCHOOL  ADMINISTRATION ^ 

Our  problem,  as  I  see  it,  is  so  vital,  its  issues  so  urgent, 
its  aspects  so  diverse,  that  it  is  difficult  even  to  state  the 
topic  of  our  discussion  without  revealing  a  personal  bias 
and  also  a  recognizable  educational  philosophy.  If  one 
says  "intermediate  school"  some  see  here  a  deplorable 
conservatism  and  a  bald  and  uninteresting  outlook. 
The  name  is,  really,  more  vital  than  it  may  seem,  and 
the  greater  and  greater  relative  frequency  with  which 
one  hears  the  term  "junior  high  school"  actually  indi- 
cates the  trend  of  the  movement.  In  this  discussion  we 
may,  if  we  can,  disregard  any  ulterior  designs  in  the  use 
of  the  name  "junior  high  school."  We  may  go  further 
and  disclaim  other  now  natural  assumptions  as  to  the 
essential  features  of  the  reorganization  we  are  all  dis- 
cussing. 

Those  actively  engaged  in  and  committed  to  the 
"reorganization"  plan  face,  of  course,  the  problems  of 
how  many  administrative  units  (of  separate  principals 
and  teachers  and  students)  we  may  best  make;  and  the 
more  perplexing  one,  of  how  many  curriculums  within 
the  different  cycles  (or  units)  must  be  organized  and 
admijiistered  for  our  different  groups  of  pupils.  We 
may,  for  example,  finally  divide  the  first  six  years  and 
kindergarten  into  two  programme  and  curriculum  units, 
and  the  last  six  years  of  public  education  also  into  two, 
thus  having  four  cycles  in  our  twelve-year  public  school 

^  Read  before  the  High  School  Conference,  University  of  Illinois, 
Nov.  19,  191 5. 

152 


JUNIOR  HIGH   SCHOOL  ADMINISTRATION    153 

curriculum  offerings.  We  may  again,  despite  present 
strong  indications,  revert  largely  to  the  "two-division" 
plan  of  precious  and  of  recent  memory.  Thirdly,  we 
may,  as  seems  most  likely  at  the  present  time,  increas- 
ingly accept  the  three-unit  division  or  cycle  arrange- 
ments, i.  e. :  elementary,  junior  high,  senior  high.  Even 
if  the  three-division  scheme  prove  most  acceptable  with 
reference  to  matters  of  purely  administrative  machinery, 
we  have  still  the  major  question  of  where  (in  terms  of 
school  age)  to  differentiate  curriculums  in  the  three 
newly  divided  stages  of  public  education,  and  the  ques- 
tion of  degrees  of  differentiation  in  the  two  upper  cycles. 
Here  again  neither  the  name  nor  the  types  of  curricu- 
lums, nor  the  desirable  curriculum  affiliations  and  com- 
binations are  even  near  settlement.  Again  those  possi- 
ble three  or  four  type  variations  of  the  six-three-three 
plan  itself,  which  will  be  conditioned  by  size  of  city  and 
character  of  school  system,  are  but  vaguely  conceived, 
are  being  experimented  with  under  only  partially  satis- 
factory conditions  for  scientific  testing  for  their  special 
merits,  and  are  as  yet  nowhere  clearly  and  finally  deter- 
mined. All  this  is  merely  to  say  that  the  term  "reor- 
ganization" refers  to  all  the  newly  proposed  cycle  divi- 
sions of  the  public  school  by  years — elementary,  upper- 
elementary,  lower-secondary,  upper-secondary. 

Now  it  happens  that  most  critical  attention,  for  rea- 
sons already  thrashed  over  and  commonly  accepted,  is 
now  focussed  upon  the  middle  cycle.  The  boundaries 
of  this  middle  ground  are  not  settled.  We  shall  refer 
in  this  discussion,  therefore,  for  obvious  reasons,  only 
incidentally  to  the  reorganization  problems  of  the  first 
six  years  or  to  those  of  the  last  three  years  (four  or  five 
if  we  include  the  junior  college)  and  we  shall  deal  chiefly 
with  the  reorganization  affecting  the  seventh,  eighth, 


154  HIGH  SCHOOL  ADMINISTRATION 

and  ninth  years.  We  shall  all  grant  that  no  part  of  the 
whole  educational  system,  public  or  private,  will  remain 
unaffected.  Nowhere  at  present,  also,  is  the  full  mean- 
ing of  the  movement  now  upon  us  fully  xmderstood. 
Everywhere  schoolmen  feel  sure  there  is  much  of  pro- 
found significance  beneath  the  surface. 

Once — in  1893,  for  example — our  secondary  education 
leaders  may  have,  as  they  professed  they  did,  faced  a 
relatively  clear  and  simple  set  of  high  school  problems. 
The  historic  Committee  of  Ten  were  easily  unanimous 
in  their  hearty  and  conJEident  indorsement  of  their 
famous  programme  for  American  secondary  education, 
which  they  so  effectively  launched.  They  were  proud 
of  their  agreeable  unanimity.  They  were  mostly  inter- 
ested in  subject-matter,  content  of  courses,  providing 
something  to  teach,  and  at  least  one  method  of  doing  it. 
No  other  fundamental  purposes  of  real  life  and  of  des- 
tiny of  nations  figured  for  them  in  any  specific  way. 

The  National  Education  Association  Committee  on 
Articulation  of  School  and  College  inherited  this  some- 
what narrow  though  definite  problem,  but  brought  to  it  a 
spirit  of  adjustment  quite  admirable,  if  a  bit  cocky  and 
defiant.  They  sacrilegiously  denied  the  sole  principle  of 
unity  of  the  older  committee  of  eminent  educational  au- 
thorities. This  second  report  is  now  the  most  influential 
single  piece  of  literature  in  existence  in  furnishing  a  model 
high  school  curriculum  for  those  inclined  to  vary  the 
traditional,  single,  "college  preparatory"  type.  The 
chief  interest,  however,  of  this  energetic  second  national 
committee  seems  to  an  outsider  to  have  been  in  the 
questions  of  educational  values  of  particular  subjects 
and  in  ingenious  manipulations  by  administrative  de- 
vices of  their  (assumed  necessary)  single  but  new  type 
of  high  school  curriculum.     They  looked  for  a  new  flexi- 


JUNIOR  HIGH  SCHOOL  ADMINISTRATION    155 

bility  and  advocated  a  method  of  manipulating  admin- 
istrative machinery.  They  instituted  no  fimdamental 
re-examination  of  all  subject-matter  with  fearless  refer- 
ence chiefly  to  the  more  heterogeneous  groups  now  in 
high  school,  and  of  those  still  more  varied  and  urgently 
needy  groups  who  are  not,  but  who  should  be  in  a  high 
school  of  some  type.  Essentially  they  sought  to  lighten 
the  yoke  of  college  entrance  and  to  Hberalize  the  college 
entrance  principle,  rather  than  to  strike  right  out  and 
construct  different  kinds  of  high  school  curriculums  for 
the  socially,  economically,  and  psychologically  distin- 
guishable groups  of  actual  or  possible  high  school  stu- 
dents. The  North  Central  Association  and  similar  in- 
terstate standardizing  agencies  in  other  sections  of  the 
country  have  had  for  years  committees  on  subject-mat- 
ter who  worked  always  from  the  point  of  view  above — 
the  unit-making  possibility  of  it  all. 

In  191 2  the  North  Central  Association  appointed 
also  a  standing  committee  on  administrative  prob- 
lems of  high  school  reorganization.  In  19 14  the  two 
committees  found  that  they  could  not  keep  off  each 
other's  preserves.  So  they  were  consolidated  into  one 
committee — the  Committee  of  Fifteen  on  Reorganiza- 
tion of  Secondary  Education  and  on  the  Definition  of  a 
Unit.  They,  too,  are  being  driven,  as  was  the  National 
Commission,  to  invent  a  philosophy  of  secondary  educa- 
tion. Now  increasingly  everywhere  the  broadening  ad- 
ministrative and  deepening  pedagogical  questions  are 
seen  to  be  interrelated.  So  the  National  Commission 
hopes  something  will  come  out  of  the  co-operative  work 
of  its  twelve  subcommittees  of  liberal  specialists  in  sub- 
ject-matter (with  their  achieved  administrative  com- 
mon sense),  all  under  a  central  "Reviewing  Committee," 
whose  function  is  to  harmonize  and  integrate  the  results 


156  HIGH   SCHOOL  ADMINISTRATION 

of  the  various  committees  into  a  unified  programme  of 
development.^ 

We  here  are  similarly  presenting  in  juxtaposition  the 
administrative  features  and  problems  and  the  peda- 
gogics of  the  special  subject-matters.  If  we  can  bring 
to  bear  upon  the  problem  administrative  common 
sense  and  harmoniously  interrelated  subject-matters 
and  get  them  formulated  into  a  purely  educational  pro- 
posal, we  may  reasonably  hope  to  grasp  what  we  are  at 
liberty  to  call  "  the  junior  high  school  idea."  We  should 
give  it  a  spirit  as  a  whole,  we  should  combine  admin- 
istrative and  pedagogical  considerations  into  a  platform 
of  reform  in  school  work,  and  we  should  so  conceive  this 
junior  school  idea  that  its  underlying  ideals  will  appear 
to  affect  the  interests  of  all  grades  of  public-school  work. 
In  short,  neither  skilful  administrative  manipulation  nor 
special  pedagogical  reform  in  more  or  less  unrelated 
school  subjects  can  convey  to  one  any  meaning  of  "re- 
organization" worth  discussing.  Let  us  for  a  time  for- 
get the  corresponding  but  indirect  effects  of  reorganiza- 
tion upon  the  six  elementary  years  and  upon  the  senior 
high  school  and  junior  college  and  let  us  consider  the 
junior  school. 

I  shall  attempt  to  present  the  movement  itself,  to 
specify  distinguishable  problems  and  place  them  in 
their  proper  groupings,  sense  the  relative  proportions  of 
these  different  groups  of  new  problems,  suggest  prob- 
able solutions  where  practice  and  educational  princi- 
ples seem  to  furnish  any  assuring  evidence,  note  the 
trends  of  developments  in  different  types  of  school  sys- 
tems and  different  communities — all  the  while  pointing 

'  Since  this  article  was  written  the  commission  has  appointed  a 
special  Subcommittee  of  Administration  of  Secondary  Education 
also. 


JUNIOR  HIGH  SCHOOL  ADMINISTRATION    157 

out  in  particular  what  we  do  not  know  about  the  junior 
high  school. 

I  shall  understand  by  "administrative  problems"  both 
those  which  are  of  a  profoundly  social  nature,  relating 
directly  to  the  demands  of  democracy;  the  more  techni- 
cal ones  of  a  financial  sort;  and  the  strictly  professional 
ones,  such  as  curriculum  organization  and  the  various 
new  features  of  school  management  supposed  to  be 
essential  accessories  of  the  new  organization — t3qDe  of 
principal  and  teacher,  new  text-books,  new  relation  to 
college  (new  units,  etc.),  vocational  guidance,  and  super- 
vised study.  "Administrative  problems"  should  in- 
clude also  certain  phases  of  the  selection  and  educational 
organization  of  content  of  courses. 

Administration,  thus  comprehensively  and  spiritually 
interpreted,  is  in  a  sense  the  most  vital  feature  of  any 
old  or  new  organization.  From  one  point  of  view  it 
outranks  even  good  but  isolated  unco-operative  teach- 
ing of  special  subjects.  It  is  the  spirit  of  the  system 
which  can  taint  or  can  inspire  all  the  co-operative  work 
of  the  school.  Now  the  spirit  of  our  reorganization 
must  be  governed  by  this  clear  philosophy  of  educational 
administration.  Our  particular  question  is:  "Can  this 
essential  spirit  of  administration  get  its  best  expression 
in  new  units  of  internal  government,  new  curriculum 
units,  new  types  of  school  activities,  new  kinds  of  group 
consciousness  and  group  exercise,  new  school  relation- 
ships— all  typical  of  the  associations  which  its  ad- 
vocates connect  with  the  junior  school  idea?"  In  other 
words,  can  we  interpret  the  junior  high  school  as  an  out- 
ward manifestation  of  a  sound,  new  philosophy  of  edu- 
cational administration?  That  it  is  a  manifestation  of 
some  sort  of  philosophy  of  school  administration  we  are 
sure.     Why  do  its  advocates  associate  it  with  new  ideas 


158  HIGH  SCHOOL  ADMINISTRATION 

of  promotion,  new  analyses  (social,  economic,  and  psy- 
chological) of  its  pupil  populations,  new  schemes  of  all 
sorts  for  guidance  (educational,  moral,  temperamental), 
new  psychological  characterizations  of  types,  new  school- 
year,  new  school-day,  "class  period"?  It  has  somehow 
set  on  fire  a  sort  of  educational  imagination  which  can- 
not be  checked.  The  particular  plan  one  proposes  may 
be  debatable;  yet  its  agitation  brings  results.  Its  advo- 
cacy is  a  means  to  an  end.  The  junior  high  school  is 
no  fool-proof  device.  Suppose  it  to  be  only  a  fruitful 
pretext;  still  schoolmen  are  using  it  in  order  purposely 
and  in  the  spirit  of  progress  to  confront  themselves 
with  a  condition  demanding  consummate  knowledge 
and  skill  in  both  teacher  and  supervisor. 

Superintendent  Study,  of  Neodesha,  after  three  years 
of  experiment  and  successful  experience,  thus  in  sub- 
stance puts  his  experience  into  advice  regarding  the  four 
fundamental  steps  to  take  if  one  moves  at  all  in  this 
new  direction — that  of  organizing  a  junior  high  school. 

1.  The  first  requisite  for  success  is  self -preparation  of 
the  superintendent  himself.  He  must  hold  a  reasoned 
position  backed  up  with  contagious  enthusiasm,  he  must 
be  patient,  tactful,  and  willing  to  wait  for  results,  and 
he  must  know  how  to  present  his  cause  as  well  as  know 
the  formal  technical  arguments  themselves. 

2.  The  school  board  must  be  educated  thoroughly 
before  the  reorganization  step  is  taken.  Being  a  sole 
promoter  is  fatal  and  wrong  in  principle.  This  sort  of 
an  educational  step  imposes  a  responsibility  which  the 
board  must  share. 

3.  Likewise  the  principals  and  the  teachers  must 
understand  the  aims  and  purposes  of  the  new  curricu- 
lums  and  methods  of  instruction,  and  help  create  the 
new    atmosphere    of    success.     Many    superintendents 


JUNIOR  HIGH  SCHOOL  ADMINISTRATION    159 

have  forgotten  this  democratic  necessity,  and  their  lieu- 
tenants have  not  rallied  around  them.  As  Superinten- 
dent Horn,  of  Houston,  reports,  it  is  very  difficult  to  get 
the  "junior  high  school  idea"  into  their  minds. 

4.  There  is  another  factor:  the  parents  and  the  com- 
munity. The  possible  values  of  the  new  plan  must  be 
patiently  and  clearly  and  constantly  taught  them  through 
press  and  platform  and  pulpit,  and  informally  on  all 
sorts  of  social  occasions.  This  step  is  the  occasion  par 
excellence  for  educational  idealization  on  the  part  of  the 
entire  community. 

Superintendent  Study  means  that  if  you  believe  in 
the  new  organization  scheme  at  all  you  must  believe  in 
it  hard.  He  has,  I  think,  the  only  legitimate  point  of 
view  and  has  well  defined  the  only  excusable  attitude 
for  those  who  venture  out  upon  these  waters.  He  has 
estimated  the  essential  steps.  These,  rather  than  merely 
mechanical  equipment,  or  a  sort  of  standardized  instruc- 
tional minimum,  or  type  of  building,  or  kind  of  text- 
books, or  length  of  class  period,  are  the  real  prerequi- 
sites. Before  we  are  through  with  reorganizing,  of 
course,  all  these  matters  {externa,  as  the  Germans  call 
them)  will  be  affected;  but  no  schoolman  should  hesi- 
tate to  adopt  those  characteristic  features  of  the  junior 
high  school  which  will  make  his  school  system  more 
effective,  even  if  he  cannot  at  first  conform  to  some- 
body's arbitrary  definition  of  such  an  organization. 

Among  these  specific  steps  there  is  no  one  order  of  pro- 
cedure. Some  schoolmen  begin  with  the  hardest  prob- 
lem first,  that  of  curriculum  reorganization  and  partial 
differentiation;  others  find  it  better  to  begin  with  some 
extra-curriculum  feature  such  as  vocational-guidance 
systems,  schemes  for  study  and  record  of  individual  dif- 
ferences, supervised  study,  departmentalism,  the  mere 


160  HIGH  SCHOOL  ADMINISTRATION 

addition  of  new  subjects,  the  formation  of  slow-moving 
and  fast-moving  groups,  or  even  social-centre  activities. 
These  are  details.  What  is  useful  to  keep  in  mind  is 
that  complete  reorganization  cannot  be  accomplished  at 
once,  and  that  one  cannot  merely  wait  till  a  professional 
standardizer  tells  him  he  can  launch  the  fuU-fledged 
junior  high  school  machinery.  All  the  good  things 
which  characterize  systems  which  have  acquired  these 
combined  functions  through  some  years  of  practice  and 
adjustment  must  be  bought  with  the  price  aggressive 
schoolmen  are  accustomed  to  pay  for  such  high  out- 
comes. 

As  this  discussion  is  concerned  primarily  with  those 
matters  of  administrative  character  as  distinguished 
from  others  purely  educational  and  even  pedagogical,  it 
may  be  well  at  this  point  to  go  into  more  detail  regard- 
ing definite  questions.  Let  us  enumerate  those  typi- 
cally non-instructional  administrative  problems. 

Shall  there  he  an  individuality  about  the  junior  high 
school  building?  Los  Angeles,  Cal.,  Kansas  City,  Kan- 
sas; Trenton,  N.  J.;  Houston,  Texas;  Neodesha,  Kan- 
sas; MacMinnville,  Ore.  (all  uniquely  situated),  furnish 
us  hints.  Houston  reports:  ''Our  junior  high  school 
buildings  have  been  admirably  planned  for  the  purposes 
outlined  above  (junior  high  school  purposes).  Espe- 
cially are  they  adapted  to  the  policy  of  emphasizing  in- 
dustrial education  and  physical  education.  They  have 
a  much  greater  proportion  of  their  space  given  to  shops, 
kitchens,  laboratories,  gymnasiums,  and  assembly-rooms 
than  is  ordinarily  found  in  school  buildings.  In  our 
South  End  building  in  particular  it  would  have  been 
possible  to  erect  a  building  to  accommodate  at  least  50 
per  cent  more  students  with  the  $250,000  which  the 
building  cost,   in  addition  to  the  grounds  and  equip- 


JUNIOR  HIGH  SCHOOL  ADMINISTRATION    161 

ment.  This  would  have  been  done,  however,  by  adding 
more  class-rooms  at  the  expense  of  shops,  laboratories, 
etc."  I  wish  he  had  added  "special  Hbraries,"  as  he 
could  have  done.  He  has  a  real  junior  high  school 
library.  He  has  also  a  swimming-pool.  Other  build- 
ing features  are  being  tested  in  the  other  places  named. 

Where  shall  the  directive  and  administrative  authority 
he?  For  a  long  time  this  will  be  a  debatable  question, 
and  already  some  heat  and  strong  opinion  are  in  evi- 
dence. We  are  here  confronted  with  a  fresh  situation 
in  which,  free  from  traditional  prejudice,  we  have  a  fine 
opportunity  for  establishing  an  adjustment  of  admin- 
istrative and  supervisory  relationships  and  co-operations 
which  is  impossible  imder  the  old  system.  For  obvious 
reasons  one  hesitates  to  cite  examples. 

What  subjects  are  to  he  offered  under  these  new  condi- 
tions? I  can  only  reflect  briefly  typical  opinion  and 
special  practice. 

The  report  of  the  Committee  on  the  Reorganization 
of  the  Public  School  System  of  Wisconsin  says  in  sub- 
stance: English,  with  larger  emphasis  upon  literature 
suitable  for  adolescents,  elementary  mathematics,  in- 
cluding the  simpler  elements  of  observational  geometry 
and  algebra  of  the  equation,  general  science  (or  elemen- 
tary science) — all  three  interlocked  with  history  and 
geography  and  taught  with  reference  to  later  advanced 
sequentially  related  work;  constructive  work  in  all  the 
general  manual  training  of  the  public  school,  in  domestic 
science,  drawing,  and  agriculture;  systematic  exercise  in 
the  form  of  music  and  physical  education.  The  addi- 
tional variables  of  this  extended  programme  must  be 
selected  with  a  view  to  pursuing  it 'for  two  years,  giving 
it  a  thorough  try-out  and  the  pupil  one,  also.  Other 
systems  make  more  extensive  inroads  into  newer  fields. 


162  HIGH  SCHOOL   ADMINISTRATION 

differentiating  the  work  in  such  fields  as  civics,  com- 
mercial branches,  mathematics,  etc.  Solvay,  N.  Y.,  is 
a  good  example  to  be  cited  later.  So  much  for  the  mere 
addition  of  subjects  and  courses. 

What  measure  of  curriculum  differentiation  shall  there 
he?  Some  so-called  junior  high  schools  have  little  if 
any  and  rest  their  claim  to  their  title  upon  extra-instruc- 
tional features.  Leavitt  and  Brown,  in  their  book 
*' Prevocational  Education  in  the  Public  Schools,"  advo- 
cate two  clearly  distinctive  curriculums,  and  base  their 
suggestion  upon  the  practice  in  a  few  selected  schools. 
In  addition  to  this  sort  of  differentiation,  leading  to  dif- 
ferent sorts  of  content  for  different  pupil  groups,  we 
have  also  the  kind  of  differentiation  determined  by  the 
presence  of  "accelerant  groups"  and  "slow-moving" 
groups  in  the  same  subject.  This  is  cited  by  Briggs 
(Annual  Report  of  U.  S.  Commissioner  of  Education, 
1 914)  as  one  of  the  most  important  reasons  for  a  junior 
high  school.  Given  these  distinguishable  groups  we 
have  three  different  methods  of  administration  with  ref- 
erence to  them  alone — ob\dously  a  new  educational  pos- 
sibility opened  up  by  the  movement. 

What  shall  he  the  modifications  of  subjects  because  of 
their  different  "curriculum  settings"?  One  junior  high 
school  principal  writes:  "The  work  as  we  give  it  is 
divided  into  six  separate  curriculums.  While  often  the 
same  subjects  may  be  required  in  the  different  cur- 
riculums, there  may  be  considerable  difference  between 
the  subject  as  given  in  one  curriculum  and  the  same 
subject  as  given  in  another  curriculum."  English,  in 
other  words,  means  less  technical  grammar  than  in  the 
old  elementary  single  curriculum;  English  in  the  domes- 
tic, practical  arts  and  prevocational  curriculums  means 
no  technical  grammar  at  all.     History  in  the  academic 


JUNIOR  HIGH  SCHOOL  ADMINISTRATION    163 

and  commercial  curriculum  is  ILke  the  traditional  courses; 
in  the  domestic,  practical  arts,  and  vocational,  it  places 
much  more  emphasis  upon  inventions  and  commercial 
history.  Arithmetic  in  the  academic  early  in  the  course 
treats  commercial  applications  of  percentage  as  algebra, 
and  treats  their  mensuration  as  geometry;  the  commer- 
cial curriculum  devotes  all  the  time  to  commercial  appli- 
cations, works  more  narrowly  to  attain  a  trade  standard 
of  accuracy  and  speed  in  computation  (sacrificing  some- 
thing of  the  purely  mathematical  exercise).  So  it  is 
with  the  drawing  work  and  the  science  work.  He  goes 
on  to  explain  how  the  academic  group  takes  German 
five  times  a  week,  while  the  commercial  is  taking  type- 
writing two  years  and  bookkeeping  one,  and  the  house- 
hold-science pupils  are  having  two  double  periods  each 
in  cooking  and  in  sewing,  practical  arts  pupils  four 
double  periods  in  shop  and  one  double  period  in  shop 
drawing,  and  the  vocational  pupils,  their  longer  school- 
day  and  school-year  in  practical  work.  All  "academic" 
boys  and  girls  get  some  of  the  shop  work  or  the  cooking 
and  sewing. 

What  entrance  requirement  to  the  junior  high  school  ? 
All  over  age  from  the  now  better,  more  economically  organ- 
ized six-year  ele?nentary  school. 

What  shall  be  the  entrance  requirements  to  the  senior 
high  school?  Superintendent  Spaulding  says  age  and 
maturity,  not  scholastic  attainment;  not  ability  to  do 
the  work  offered  in  the  "single  curriculum"  senior  high 
school,  but  ability  to  do  something  different  from  the 
babies  of  the  first  six  grades  and  something  which  the 
modem  upper  high  school  must,  if  it  does  not  now,  offer. 
Superintendent  Maxwell  would  have  no  "scholastic  en- 
trance requirement"  for  the  group  who  are  destined  for 
the  vocational  work  of  the  junior  high  school,  but  he 


164  HIGH  SCHOOL  ADMINISTRATION 

would  add  a  more  rigid  scholastic  test  for  the  others — 
a  compromise.     Of  the  three  practices  I  like  Spaulding's. 

How  record  credits?  To  be  dogmatic:  by  the  semester 
hour  plan,  as  in  college,  because  of  the  desirable  varying 
of  munber  of  class  periods  for  courses  in  order  to  assist 
in  meeting  the  situation  arising  from  accelerant  classes, 
new  features,  etc. 

How  shall  the  same  subject  {German  or  Latin)  be  differ- 
ent in  form  and  in  unit  of  credit  value  when  given  in 
junior  and  in  senior  high  school?  (See  Annual  Report 
of  North  Central  Association,  Committee  on  Definition 
of  a  Unit — 1914.)  This  solution  is  tentative,  but  prob- 
ably in  the  right  direction. 

What  unique  systems  of  advice  and  guidance  are  espe- 
cially suitable  for  junior  high  schools?  (See  Somerville, 
Mass.,  Superintendent  C.  S.  Clark's  Annual  Report, 
1914.) 

What  is  the  most  practical  system  of  card-index  of  indi- 
vidual traits^  etc.,  and  what  can  we  do  with  all  this  per- 
sonal information  of  pupils,  once  we  get  it?  Experi- 
ments are  numerous,  but  as  yet  no  single  system  stands 
out  from  the  others. 

What  are  the  qualifications  of  the  ''home  teacher,'^  ^'ad- 
viser teacher,"  '' mother-teacher,"  in  regard  to  preventing 
impossible  assignments  (a  danger  of  all  junior  high 
schools  at  first),  in  deaHng  with  absences,  discipline, 
etc.?  A  new  functionary  is  here  being  developed. 
(See  McMinnville,  Ore.;  Houston,  Texas;  Decatur  and 
Urbana,  111.,  et  al) 

What  is  a  junior  high  school  laboratory  work  ?  Indi- 
vidual experimentation,  or  wholly  demonstrational  ? 
And  in  what  subjects  practicable?  (See  N.  E.  A.  for- 
mulation of  "Project,"  Report  of  Committee  on  General 


JUNIOR  HIGH  SCHOOL  ADMINISTRATION    165 

Science,  February,  19 15.)  This  is  still  a  controversial 
issue  in  which  neither  side  has  as  yet  touched  bottom. 

What  is  a  junior  high  school  library  ?  (See  Springfield, 
111.;  Houston,  Texas;  Decatur,  111.,  for  reports  showing 
widely  differing  facilities.) 

What  is  the  proper  class  period,  number  of  periods  per 
day,  per  week,  proper  division  for  study  and  for  recita- 
tion, variation  with  subjects  ?  (Variation  here  is  indica- 
tive of  most  thorough  experimentation  with  many  dif- 
ferent combinations  of  features.) 

Can  we  standardize  the  home  study  for  this  cycle  as  the 
French  do?  and  can  we  administer  our  own  standards? 
(No  data  of  value  as  proof,  but  much  of  "suggestive" 
value.) 

What  is  practicable  and  what  desirable  regarding  depart- 
mentalism? (See  Reports  from  Rochester  and  Solvay, 
N.  Y.,  and  H.  W.  Josselyn's  "Survey  of  Accredited 
Schools  of  Kansas"  for  variations  of  so-called  "depart- 
mentalism" itself.) 

What  shall  be  the  number  of  studies  taken  at  one  time  by 
the  pupil  in  junior  high  school,  and  how  many  times  per 
week?  (See  North  Central  Association  Report,  1914, 
which  appears  here  to  be  in  direct  opposition  to  the 
central  idea  of  exploitation  and  exploration  of  interests 
and  aptitudes  of  pupils  partly  by  means  of  a  greater 
variety  and  larger  number  of  courses.  See  also  the 
"concentration"  method  of  administration  of  curricu- 
lums  in  Manual  Training  High  School,  Indianapolis.) 

How  standardize  the  instruction  hours  per  teacher  per 
week  ?     (Extreme  variation  in  practice.) 

Shall  junior  high  school  teachers  be  college  graduates  ? 
(This  is  evidently  a  common  ideal.) 

What  is  a  reasonable  salary  scale  as  compared  with 


166  HIGH   SCHOOL  ADMINISTRATION 

senior  high  school  teachers  ?  (Some  advocate  same  scale, 
some  even  a  higher.) 

May  we  expect  an  interchange  of  teaching  service  and  oj 
superoision,  as  well  as  of  apparatus  and  of  library  facili- 
ties ?  (Different  systems  will  soon  be  able  to  contribute 
pertinent  experience  here.) 

What  is  the  minimum  number  of  pupils  essential  to  the 
ideal  junior  high  school  organization?  Merely  enough 
for  full  classes,  for  sections  in  laboratories  and  for  special 
libraries;  enough  to  justify  special  auditorium  exercises 
for  credit;  enough  for  accelerant  groups;  enough  to 
reduce  the  per  capita  costs  to  what  figure?  (See  Hol- 
land's Report  of  Louisville  Public  Schools,  19 13,  14, 
and  H.  W.  Josselyn  in  Johnston's  "The  Modern  High 
School,"  chap.  V.) 

As  to  arguments,  I  shall  not  rehash  them  now.  They 
are  familiar  to  all  who  read  modern  educational  litera- 
ture, or  even  to  those  who  merely  attend  educational 
meetings.  Each  side  urges  the  cause  of  democracy 
itself  as  the  first  argument,  and  from  this  goes  forth  into 
"castes  in  society"  and  "tampering  with  curriculums," 
down  to  mere  matters  of  administrative  device. 

The  extent  of  the  movement  is  now  impressive. 
There  are  at  least  six  states  which  have  "resolved"  and 
taken  other  steps.  Many  teacher  associations,  includ- 
ing the  National  Education  Association  and  some  large 
universities,  including  University  of  Michigan  and  Uni- 
versity of  Chicago,  have  adjusted  temporarily  their  en- 
trance requirements,  and  the  North  Central  Association 
has  twice  announced  its  intention  to  propose  some  more 
fundamental  method  of  articulation.  The  National 
Commission  of  Secondary  Education  and  the  Depart- 
ment of  Superintendence  are  committed.     At  the  pres- 


JUNIOR  HIGH  SCHOOL  ADMINISTRATION    167 

ent  time  a  large  number  of  schools  in  the  North  Central 
territory  alone  report  themselves  as  unorthodox,  most 
of  them  being  clearly  "intentional"  junior  high  schools. 
A  larger  number  report  their  intention  to  reorganize  in 
the  near  future.  Douglass  in  1913  was  in  communica- 
tion with  135  such  schools.  Briggs,  in  the  Annual  Com- 
missioner's Report,  19 14,  cites  167  cities  as  having  one 
or  mors  junior  schools,  and  elsewhere  speaks  of  being  in 
comn::.lnication  with  193,  and  says  that  222  others  had 
decli^^ed  their  plans  formed  for  such  a  step.  The  North 
Cen''ral  territory  contains  the  same  impressive  propor- 
tion of  these  intending  the  reform.  Doubtless  many  of 
these  are  not  full-fledged  junior  high  schools.  The  more 
interesting  thing  is  that  they  are  such  in  what  to  them 
is  some  essential  feature,  and  in  their  intention  of  grad- 
ually incorporating  others.  I  beUeve  their  spirit  is  a 
good  one — launch  right  out  when  the  preparations  above 
specified  are  made,  and  do  the  thing  which  seems  best 
to  start  upon.  Local  conditions  will  determine  which 
ones  of  all  those  enumerated  steps  should  come  first. 

As  to  proofs  we  have  at  present  only  case  records 
of  successes  of  individual  systems — no  appraisal  of  large 
numbers  of  systems  with  reference  to  items  of  improve- 
ment in  common  measured  under  comparable  condi- 
tions. Furthermore,  we  have  no  reported  failures  or 
reversions  to  the  older  type. 

Thus  far  we  have  mentioned  the  strictly  administra- 
tive problems  largely  external  to  the  curriculum  differ- 
entiations themselves.  The  policy  of  curriculum  differ- 
entiation and  specialized  trainings  in  the  senior  high 
school  scarcely  longer  admits  of  argument.  It  is  the 
great  issue  in  the  junior  high  school.  There  is  a  sense 
in  which  curriculum  differentiation  at  this  junior  school 


168  HIGH  SCHOOL  ADMINISTRATION 

stage  is  questionable.  Certainly  few  would  advocate 
pigeonholing  all  the  pupils  of  these  grades  by  absolute 
segregation  with  specialized  methods  and  courses  and 
distinctive  subjects.  There  is  another  sort  of  curricu- 
lum differentiation,  however,  which  is  basic  to  the  very 
junior  high  school  idea  itself.  It  may  be  progressively 
illustrated  by  Richmond,  Ind. ;  Trenton,  N.  J. ;  and  Sol- 
vay,  N.  Y.;  and  by  certain  extreme  vocational  curricu- 
lums  in  Massachusetts  and  New  York. 

We  may  say  that  the  "prevocational  issue"  appears 
to  be  the  most  prominent  reason  or  pretext  for  junior 
high  school  curriculum  differentiation.  Briggs  calls  at- 
tention to  the  fact  that  there  were  only  57  of  the  167 
junior  high  schools  which  he  examined  which  differen- 
tiate their  curriculums  on  some  other  than  a  so-called 
vocational  basis.  This  term,  "pre vocational,"  appears 
to  be  an  ill-chosen  one  to  cover,  as  it  does,  all  the  cur- 
riculum variations  from  the  traditional  academic  cur- 
riculum. We  may  distinguish,  as  regards  their  attitude 
toward  prevocational  work,  the  following  as  typical  of 
curriculum-makers  for  junior  high  schools: 

1 .  The  traditional  academicist  who  will  have  none  of  it. 

2.  The  average  fair  schoolman  who  will  make — often 
from  necessity — the  gingerly  solution  of  adding  two 
subjects — manual  training  and  domestic  science. 

3.  The  "Cole  type"  (see  Cole,  "Industrial  Education 
in  the  Elementary  School"),  who  will  rejuvenate  the 
academic  subjects  a  bit  and  add  a  new  subject  which  is 
called  "Tftdustry,"  which  will  function  in  giving  "indus- 
trial insight"  and  "appreciation  of  labor." 

4.  The  Indiana  spiral  plan  of  a  sort  of  academic  or- 
ganization in  much  detail  of  the  state-required  voca- 
tional subjects  in  the  upper  grades  to  be  followed  by 
elaboration  of  same  material  in  high  school. 


JUNIOR  HIGH  SCHOOL  ADMINISTRATION    169 

5.  The  state  aided  vocational  work  (specialized  and 
intensive)  for  selected  junior  high  school  boys  and  girls 
in  New  York,  New  Jersey,  Pennsylvania,  Massachusetts. 

6.  There  is  what  we  may  call  the  most  recent — ^Leav- 
itt  and  Brown's — "new  general  prevocational  educa- 
tion" for  the  "prevocational  type"  of  boy  and  girl.  It 
does  not  contemplate  any  new  names  for  school  sub- 
jects, but  does  propose  entirely  new  content  for  this 
special,  psychologically  different  group. 

7.  There  is  the  Solvay  "five-curriculum"  scheme, 
with  the  third  "readjustment"  year  for  those  who 
change  their  curriculum  after  the  two  years'  try-out. 

8.  The  "Ettinger  cross-section  curriculum  scheme"  of 
New  York  City  is  both  interesting  as  an  offered  substi- 
tute for  the  Gary  system  and  for  being  now  tried  out  in 
some  New  York  schools. 

9.  Then  lastly  we  have  the  Gary  plan,  and  now  nu- 
merous variations  of  it — a  scheme  of  such  fundamen- 
tally and  profoundly  reorganized  materials  and  methods 
that  even  curriculum  differentiation  is  not  necessary— 
since  there  is  left  no  academic  curriculum  from  which  to 
differentiate. 

The  junior  high  school  has  before  it  all  these  models 
of  differentiation. 

For  whom  definitely  are  all  these  differentiations  of 
curriculum  devised?  Leavitt  is  an  illustration  of  an 
advocate  of  curriculum  differentiation  on  the  ground  of 
psychologically  different  types  of  junior  high  school 
pupils — the  "scholastic  type"  and  the  "prevocational 
type."  His  differentiated  curriculum  is  not  for  the 
"thousands  and  thousands  who  succeed  in  school  work 
now,"  but  for  the  overage  or  retarded.  Even  some  of 
these  are  not  "serious,"  unless  they  have  acquired  a 
"chronic  dislike  for  school."     One  suspects  that  Leavitt 


170  HIGH  SCHOOL  ADMINISTRATION 

is  after  all,  however,  thinking  of  a  large  number  of 
pupils,  not  only  of  those  overage  in  the  overburdened 
first  six  grades,  but  also  of  numbers  of  those  in  their 
grade  who  have  not  been  gripped  by  academic  interests. 
One  suspects,  too,  and  hopes  that  Mr.  Leavitt  is  vision- 
ing  some  final  and  fundamental  reorganization  of  all 
public-school  work  of  these  grades.  Solvay  makes  its 
"five-division"  differentiation  with  "social  needs  as  the 
curriculum  clew."  The  Ayres  method  of  analysis  of 
pupils'  "career  probabilities"  as  used  for  the  "read- 
justment year"  is  employed  to  correct  errors  in  curricu- 
lum placement.  The  "Ettinger  plan"  is  preceded  by 
parent-teacher  conference  and  correspondence.  These 
are  but  a  few  of  the  plans  for  curriculum  differentiations 
now  being  achieved  in  the  junior  high  school  period.  All 
bear  close  relation  to  the  next  problem,  that  of  the  con- 
tent of  the  courses  constituting  the  curriculums. 

The  "junior  high  school  idea"  implies  the  earnest 
and  thoroughgoing  examination  of  all  subject-matter 
with  a  view  to  its  definite  aims  and  values.  The  further 
work  of  the  National  Society  for  the  Study  of  Educa- 
tion in  following  its  work  (Fourteenth  Year-Book)  in 
some  of  the  traditional  elementary  subjects  by  an  ex- 
amination into  the  new  subjects  and  courses  as  they 
vary  with  their  ^'curriculum  settings^'  in  junior  high 
schools  will  be  awaited  with  interest. 

The  increasing  number  of  junior  high  school  manuals 
now  being  published  contain  quite  elaborately  and  care- 
fully worked-out  "units  of  instruction"  within  the 
newly  established  junior  high  school  courses.  This  is, 
of  course,  indicative  of  the  most  profound  and  far- 
reaching  phase  of  the  whole  movement.  Indeed,  the 
movement  itself  might  be  said  to  exist  and  to  gather  its 
momentum  in  order  thua  to  eventuate  and  culminate  in 


JUNIOR  HIGH  SCHOOL  ADMINISTRATION    171 

a  thoroughly  reorganized  educational  aim,  content,  and 
method.  This  paper  has  sought  chiefly  to  suggest  the 
administrative  instrumentality  which  will  likely  further 
this  wide-spread  spirit  of  public-school  reform.^ 

^  Most  of  the  references  to  particular  junior  high  schools  in  the 
text  above  were  chosen  for  local  reasons  or  because  of  recent  corre- 
spondence freshly  in  mind.  No  attempt  was  made  to  include  even 
the  most  prominent  institutions  of  this  type,  such  as  Los  Angeles, 
Grand  Rapids,  Berkeley,  Columbus,  Boston,  Madison,  Trenton, 
Rochester,  Evansville,  Salt  Lake  City,  Dayton,  etc. 


CURRICULUM  ORGANIZATION 

There  are  still  a  few  high  schools  that  cling  to  the 
traditional  college  preparatory  curriculum,  to  which  all 
pupils  are  subjected.  Then  there  are  those  that  attempt, 
through  the  elective  system,  to  meet  the  needs  of  each 
individual  by  placing  him  in  just  those  courses  which  he 
needs.  Under  this  plan  there  are  presumably  as  many 
curriculums  as  there  are  pupils.  Theoretically,  this  sys- 
tem is  sound;  in  practice  it  has  not  worked.  A  third 
method  is  found  in  those  schools  that  have  adopted  the 
''group"  system.  Under  this  system  courses  are  ar- 
ranged into  groups  according  to  logical  sequences  and 
relationships.  Those  courses  that  are  closely  related  to 
the  study  of  Latin,  for  example,  are  required  in  the 
Latin  group.  These  "groups"  are  almost  always  domi- 
nated by  tradition  and  by  college  entrance  requirements, 
but  theoretically  the  groupings  are  logical  from  the 
standpoint  of  subject-matter.  It  often  happens,  of 
course,  that  some  of  these  groups  are,  in  effect,  curricu- 
lums. Thus  the  mechanic  arts,  the  household  arts,  or 
the  commercial  groups  are  likely  to  be  so  designed  as 
to  meet  fairly  well  the  needs  of  definite  groups  of  pupils 
and  are,  therefore,  by  chance,  frequently  true  curricu- 
lums. There  are  likely  to  be  many  incongruities  in  such 
curriculums,  because  the  chief  considerations  in  their 
construction  are  considerations  of  subject-matter  and 
not  the  needs  of  the  students  they  are  supposed  to  serve. 

In  some  schools,  as  in  the  high  schools  of  Los  Angeles, 
Cal.,  curriculums  have  been  designed  in  view  of  the 
needs  of  well-defined  pupil  groups.  The  manual  of  the 
Los  Angeles  high  schools  shows  many  such  curriculums. 

172 


CURRICULUM  ORGANIZATION  173 

The  Los  Angeles  boy  who  desires  to  enter  the  engineer- 
ing department  of  the  state  university  will  find  the 
course  which  he  needs  laid  out  for  him  in  one  of  the 
high  schools.  The  boy  or  girl  who  desires  to  become 
a  stenographer  will  find  a  stenographic  curriculum,  in 
which  are  required  those  subjects  and  courses  which 
will  fit  one  for  that  vocation.  In  Los  Angeles  the  chief 
consideration  is  the  boy  or  the  girl  and  not  subject-mat- 
ter, nor  tradition,  nor  narrow  formulas  of  mental  disci- 
pline. Very  few  schools,  however,  have  passed  the 
"group"  system  in  their  curriculum  planning. 

In  his  "History  of  Education  in  Iowa"  (191 5)  Mr. 
Clarence  Ray  Aurner  gives  an  unusually  complete  list 
of  representative  programmes  of  studies  in  force  in  Iowa 
high  schools  at  that  time.  Mr.  Aurner  points  out  that 
these  programmes  of  studies  are  being  constantly  en- 
riched and  are  passing  through  processes  of  constant 
reorganization.  A  critical  study  of  these  programmes 
has  failed  to  reveal  a  single  Iowa  high  school  that  had 
progressed  beyond  the  "group"  system  of  administering 
programmes  of  studies.  In  191 5  Doctor  C.  E.  Holley 
made  a  study  of  the  curriculum  offerings  of  fifty-four 
high  schools,  located  in  cities  of  4,000  or  more  inhabi- 
tants, selected  at  random  throughout  the  United  States. 
He  secured  his  data  from  high  school  bulletins  published 
between  191 2  and  1914.  Doctor  Holley  says,  in  sum- 
marizing his  study:  "Curriculum  differentiation  has  been 
attempted  by  many  who  have  hazy  ideas  as  to  what 
they  are  doing.  Few  curriculums  were  found  which 
were  planned  for  a  clearly  differentiated  group  of  pupils. 
Most  of  them  were  mere  'paper'  or  administrative  cur- 
riculums. It  seems  that  few  schoolmen  are  doing  real- 
cur  riculum  thinking."  Within  the  past  three  years  tlie 
writer  has  critically  analyzed  the  programmes  of  studies 


174  HIGH  SCHOOL  ADMINISTRATION 

in  over  fifty  of  the  largest  high  schools  in  the  country 
and  has  found  the  same  conditions. 

There  are  other  respects  in  which  there  is  the  widest 
diversity  in  the  administration  of  courses  in  high  schools. 
The  variation  as  regards  constants,  studies  required  of 
all  pupils,  is  well  known.  A  census  of  high  schools 
would  probably  show  that  in  no  two  schools  are  the 
requirements  alike.  All  require  English,  but  there  the 
similarity  ceases.  Some  require  three  and  some  require 
four  years  of  English.  Some  require  mathematics  and 
some  do  not;  some  require  science  and  some  do  not; 
some  require  one  course  in  history,  others  other  courses, 
and  some  none  at  all ;  and  so  on  to  the  end.  Apparently 
there  is  complete  disagreement  as  to  what  subjects,  with 
the  exception  of  English,  are  indispensable  to  education 
for  democracy. 

The  problem  of  sequence  and  diversity  has  scarcely 
been  considered  by  schoolmen.  Under  the  group  sys- 
tem there  is  sequence  with  a  vengeance,  altogether  too 
much  of  it,  for  the  sequences  are  likely  to  be  in  the  most 
closely  related  subjects.  Under  the  elective  system,  on 
the  other  hand,  it  is  difficult  to  secure  the  necessary 
sequence.  Again,  in  an  examination  of  groups  in  the 
programmes  of  studies  of  various  schools,  few  conscious 
attempts  have  been  found  to  secure  diversity.  But 
under  the  elective  system  there  is  likely  to  be  a  rush  for 
snap  courses  and  first-year  courses,  with  the  result  that 
there  is  too  much  diversity  and  no  sequence. 

In  the  curriculum  history  of  the  Decatur,  111.,  High 
School  is  epitomized  the  experimentation  of  three-quar- 
ters of  a  century  in  American  high  schools.  The  Deca- 
tur High  School  was  established  in  the  sixties.  In  1868 
a  curriculum  was  published.  This  curriculum,  with 
others,  is  preserved  in  the  reports  which  have  been  made 


CURRICULUM  ORGANIZATION  175 

from  time  to  time  by  the  superintendents  of  schools  in 
Decatur.  At  that  time  the  Decatur  High  School  offered 
only  one  curriculum.  All  pupils  had  to  pursue  this  cur- 
riculum, which  was  in  effect  a  college  preparatory  and, 
therefore,  a  true  curriculum  in  the  sense  that  it  served 
one  clearly  defined  pupil  group — that  group  expecting 
to  enter  college.  The  only  option  was  that  of  substitut- 
ing some  other  study  for  Latin.  Pupils  not  intending  to 
enter  college  were  not  compelled  to  take  Latin,  although 
a  study  of  the  curriculum  leaves  one  in  doubt  as  to 
what  subject  they  could  have  taken  instead  of  Latin. 
This  curriculum  remained  in  force  for  a  number  of 
years,  probably  until  1892,  when  a  new  programme  of 
studies  was  printed. 

The  old  single  curriculum  system  had  failed  in  De- 
catur and  was  now  elaborated  into  four  curriculums  or, 
more  properly,  "groups" — the  English,  the  Classical,  the 
Latin,  and  the  Scientific  groups.  An  analysis  of  these 
four  groups  will  show  that  they  were  very  much  alike. 
In  fact,  the  only  difference  between  the  four  was  that  in 
some  more  Latin  was  required  than  in  others.  In  the 
classical  and  in  the  Latin  groups  four  years  were  re- 
quired, in  the  science  group  three  years  were  required, 
while  in  the  English  group  no  Latin  was  required.  The 
classical  group  was  so  called  because  Greek  was  required. 
Once  the  pupil  had  selected  his  "group"  there  was  prac- 
tically no  opportunity  for  election  of  subjects,  since  all 
subjects  were  prescribed  throughout  the  four  years  in 
each  group.  This  attempt  to  adapt  the  work  to  the 
needs  of  the  pupils  did  not  succeed,  so  in  1899  a  new 
system  was  introduced. 

In  the  period  between  1892  and  1899  the  Committee 
of  Ten  of  the  National  Education  Association  had  made 
its  historic  report.    The  discussion  of  how  to  adapt  the 


176  HIGH  SCHOOL  ADMINISTRATION 

programme  of  studies  to  the  students  had  begun  in 
earnest.  The  movement  in  favor  of  the  elective  sys- 
tem was  in  its  heydey.  Decatur  High  School  was 
swung  to  the  extreme.  All  "groups"  were  abolished 
and  the  programme  of  studies  was  administered  on  an 
almost  completely  free  election  system. 

Four  years  of  English  and  two  years  of  mathematics 
were  required  of  all  pupils.  All  other  studies  were  elec- 
tive and  the  pupil  would  theoretically  be  placed,  upon 
the  advice  of  the  principal,  in  those  courses  best  adapted 
to  his  peculiar  needs.  This  system  was  in  vogue  until 
191 1,  but  it  failed  to  justify  the  claims  that  were  made 
for  it.  An  exhaustive  study  of  the  four-year  individual 
curriculums  of  those  pupils  who  had  graduated  from  the 
high  school  in  this  period  showed  an  almost  utter  lack 
of  organization  of  courses  so  far  as  the  individual  was 
concerned.  It  was  found  that  outside  of  English  and 
mathematics  few  subjects  were  pursued  longer  than  a 
year.  There  was  an  almost  universal  tendency  on  the 
part  of  pupils  to  take  first  and  second  year  courses  to 
the  neglect  of  advanced  courses.  The  one  exception  to 
this  was  the  .languages  where  tradition  and  a  rule  that 
two  years  of  a  foreign  language  must  be  taken  in  order 
to  obtain  credit  in  it  toward  graduation,  unless  the  pupil 
had  previously  done  two  years  in  another  foreign  lan- 
guage, operated  to  secure  more  sequence. 

In  191 1  a  new  high  school  building  was  completed, 
and  for  the  first  time  numerous  and  varied  manual  arts 
and  commercial  courses  were  to  be  offered.  In  a  series 
of  faculty  meetings  it  was  decided  that  a  better  curricu- 
lum organization  must  be  obtained.  The  result  was  a 
return  to  the  "group"  system.  Ten  groups  were  estab- 
lished— the  Latin,  the  German,  the  science,  the  English, 
the  history-civics,  the  art,  the  commercial,  the  mechanic 


CURRICULUM  ORGANIZATION  177 

arts,  the  household  arts,  and  the  normal  preparatory. 
Four  years  of  the  major  subject  was  required  in  each  of 
these  groups  in  addition  to  four  years  in  English.  Such 
other  courses  were  required  as  had  logical  relation  from 
the  standpoint  of  subject-matter  to  the  major  subject 
of  the  group. 

This  scheme  was  in  vogue  four  years.  It  was  an  im- 
provement over  the  free  elective  system,  because  for 
the  first  time  the  pupil  had  some  guidance  in  the  matter 
of  courses  pursued,  coupled  with  the  advantages  of  a 
rich  and  varied  programme  of  studies.  But  the  plan 
was  unsatisfactory.  In  the  first  place,  it  was  found  that 
there  was  too  much  sequence  and  not  enough  diversity. 
The  four-year  requirements  in  two  studies  worked  very 
great  hardships.  A  single  failure  might  cause  the  pupil 
endless  trouble  in  arranging  a  schedule  of  classes  that 
would  permit  his  completing  his  group  in  four  years. 
Exception  after  exception  had  to  be  made,  with  the 
result  that  all  regulations  were  practically  thrown  to  the 
winds.  There  was  a  tendency  on  the  part  of  the  pupil 
to  overspecialize.  In  the  second  place,  the  faculty 
came  to  believe  that  some  of  these  groups  were  un- 
natural. There  was,  for  example,  no  excuse  for  a 
Latin  "group,"  or  curriculum,  in  a  high  school  in  which 
there  were  perhaps  not  six  pupils  who  would  ever  spe- 
cialize in  Latin,  and  if  there  were  those  in  the  high  school 
who  would  make  the  teaching  or  study  of  Latin  a  life 
vocation,  they  must  first  complete  entrance  require- 
ments in  order  to  enter  the  university  or  college  where 
they  could  prepare  for  their  life-work.  Such  pupils 
properly  belonged  not  in  a  Latin  curriculum  but  in  a 
college  preparatory  curriculum.  It  was  also  agreed  by 
the  faculty  that  many  subjects  required  in  the  various 
groups  were  out  of  place  because  they  had  been  placed 


178  HIGH  SCHOOL  ADMINISTRATION 

in  the  group  requirements  through  considerations  of 
subject-matter  rather  than  with  regard  to  the  needs  of 
the  pupils  to  be  served  by  the  study  "groups." 

In  191 5  the  whole  matter  was  threshed  out  in  a  series 
of  faculty  meetings,  and  a  new  organization  of  the  pro- 
gramme of  studies  was  effected.  It  was  decided  that 
there  were  three  large  groups  in  the  high  school  whose 
needs  must  be  met  by  the  programme  of  studies:  the 
college  preparatory  group,  the  vocational  group,  and 
that  group  which  would  not  enter  college  and  did  not, 
for  good  reasons,  care  to  prepare  for  definite  vocations, 
but  desired  a  general  liberal  arts  training  in  the  high 
school.  Curriculums  were  designed,  therefore,  to  meet, 
as  nearly  as  possible,  the  needs  of  each  of  those  three 
groups  and,  in  so  far  as  possible,  with  the  equipment  at 
hand,  to  meet  the  needs  of  subdivisions  of  the  large 
groups.  So  there  were  established  college  preparatory 
and  normal  preparatory  curriculums  that  would  admit 
to  the  various  colleges  of  the  state  university  and  to  the 
normal  school  of  the  district.  Likewise  a  number  of 
vocational  curriculums  were  worked  out,  such  as  the 
household  arts,  including  the  sewing  and  the  cooking 
curriculums;  the  mechanic  arts,  including  the  wood- 
working and  the  iron- working  curriculums;  the  commer- 
cial, including  stenographic  and  bookkeeping  curricu- 
lums; the  music  curriculums;  the  fine  arts  curriculum; 
the  agriculture  curriculum;  and  the  teacher- training  cur- 
riculums. The  general  curriculimi,  poorly  named,  per- 
haps, was  planned  for  pupils  who  do  not  care  to  enroll 
in  any  of  the  vocational  curriculums  and  do  not  care  to 
take  the  mathematics  or  languages  required  in  the  col- 
lege preparatory  curriculums.  Experience  had  shown 
that  this  was  a  very  real  and  definite  pupil  group.  In 
all  fifteen  curriculums  choices  were  offered. 


CURRICULUM   ORGANIZATION  179 

In  order  to  secure  sequence  and  diversity  it  was  de- 
cided to  require  of  all  pupils,  in  four  distinct  subjects  or 
departments,  two  majors  of  three  units  each,  and  two 
minors  of  two  units  each.  This  system,  copied,  in  fact, 
from  the  colleges,  insures  that  the  four  years'  work  done 
by  the  pupil  will  have  organization,  and  that  he  will 
pursue  certain  studies  long  enough  to  obtain  some  mas- 
tery of  them.  It  also  insures  that  he  will  have  that 
diversity  of  training  which  is  fundamental  in  a  liberal 
education.  The  general  curriculum  could  not  be  con- 
sidered a  snap  curriculum  and  an  easy  mark,  because 
the  pupil  electing  it  is  required  to  have  his  two  majors 
and  two  minors,  which  call  for  good,  hard,  serious  work. 

Finally,  it  was  decided  that  three  years  of  English, 
one  year  of  mediaeval  and  modern  history,  a  half  year  of 
civics  or  a  whole  year  of  American  history,  one  year  of  a 
laboratory  science  and  one  semester  each  of  physical 
education  and  chorus,  should  be  required  of  all  pupils. 
It  is  unnecessary  to  present  the  arguments  for  requiring 
English.  At  present  there  should  be  little  disagreement 
upon  that  point  among  schoolmen,  although  there 
would  probably  be  disagreement  as  to  the  amount  that 
should  be  required.  In  brief,  the  reason  for  requiring 
mediaeval  and  modern  history  and  civics,  or  American 
history,  is  that  the  prime  business  of  the  school  is  to 
prepare  boys  and  girls  for  the  intelligent  performance  of 
the  duties  of  citizenship  in  a  republic.  In  order  to  per- 
form these  duties  the  pupil  must  be  intelligent  as  regards 
the  present  pohtical  and  social  order  and  as  regards  the 
relations  of  the  major  nations  of  the  world.  In  order  to 
accomplish  tliis  end  American  history  and  civics  and 
modern  history  are  indispensable.  These  constitute  the 
irreducible  minimum.  Since  the  greatest  contribution 
of  modern  times  to  civilization  and  to  the  thought  of  the 


180  HIGH  SCHOOL  ADMINISTRATION 

world  has  been  that  of  science  and  of  scientific  method, 
no  pupil  should  go  out  from  the  high  school  without  an 
introduction  to  at  least  one  great  field  of  science  and  to 
scientific  method.  The  physical  well-being  of  people 
rests  at  the  foundation  of  all  education,  culture,  and 
civilization,  and,  therefore,  physical  education  should  be 
one  of  the  school  requirements  of  all  pupils.  The  limi- 
tations of  the  plant  alone  determined  the  amount  of  this 
work  required  at  Decatur.  Finally,  music  was  rec- 
ognized as  a  great  socializing  force  in  community  life. 
Every  student  should  have  some  appreciation  of  music 
in  order  that  he  may  participate  to  the  fullest  extent  in 
this  great  unifying  experience.  Here  again  the  lack  of 
space  in  the  building  at  Decatur  determined  to  a  degree 
the  requirement. 

In  some  such  manner  must  the  curriculum  problem 
be  solved.  In  every  high  school  of  any  size  certain 
groups  of  pupils  will  be  found  for  which  carefully  planned 
curriculums  must  be  provided.  One  such  group,  ever 
present,  consists  of  those  who  will  enter  colleges  or 
normal  schools.  Instead  of  Latin  "groups"  and  science 
"groups"  which  meet  nobody's  needs,  curriculums 
should  be  outlined  for  this  group  on  the  basis  of  the 
requirements  of  the  state  university,  the  head  of  the 
state  school  system,  and  of  the  normal  school  of  the 
district.  Another  well-defined  group  is  the  commercial 
group,  another  the  mechanic  arts,  another  the  house- 
hold arts,  another  that  group  needing  a  general,  liberal 
arts  curriculum.  The  scientific  method  of  approaching 
the  cuniculum  problem  in  a  high  school  is  through  a 
survey  of  the  abilities  and  vocational  needs  and  inten- 
tions of  the  pupils.  Such  a  survey,  while  not  absolutely 
necessary,  will  throw  great  light  on  the  problems,  espe- 
cially in  the  larger  schools. 


CURRICULUM  ORGANIZATION  181 

Once  a  decision  has  been  made  as  to  what  curriculums 
are  needed,  the  problem  is  faced  of  what  courses  ought 
to  be  required  in  each  curriculum.  The  test  will  be  no 
longer  that  of  the  logical  relationship  of  subject-matter 
but  that  of  the  needs  of  the  pupil  group  to  be  served. 
Those  courses  will  be  required  in  the  commercial  cur- 
riculums that  will  best  fit  one  to  become  a  good  stenog- 
rapher or  bookkeeper  or  salesman.  If  a  course  in  Latin 
is  required  in  the  stenographic  curriculum  it  will  be 
because  stenographers  will  improve  their  vocabularies 
through  a  study  of  Latin  and  not  because  of  any  logical 
relation  of  Latin  to  any  other  subject  required  in  that 
curriculum. 

But  it  will  not  be  easy  to  construct  these  curriculums. 
Scientific  investigations  need  to  be  made  to  determine 
just  what  training  is  required  to  fit  for  each  vocation 
and  to  determine  what  vocations  need  to  be  considered 
in  curriculum-planning.  It  will  take  years  of  inquiry, 
investigation,  and  experimentation  to  develop  the  best 
possible  curriculums. 

In  like  manner  the  problem  of  constants  must  be 
attacked.  The  present  diversity  of  practice  in  this  re- 
spect is  ridiculous.  It  characterizes  us  as  a  profession 
of  loose  thinkers.  Can  we  not  agree,  say,  on  whether 
or  not  some  of  the  social  sciences  ought  to  be  required, 
and,  if  so,  what  constitutes  the  sine  qua  non. 

All  that  has  been  said  concerning  the  problems  of  cur- 
riculum-making in  the  senior  high  school  will  hold  good 
in  the  junior  high  school.  The  same  principles  of  cur- 
riculum differentiation,  of  constants  and  of  sequence 
and  diversity,  will  hold  in  the  junior  cycle  that  will  ob- 
tain in  the  senior  cycle  of  our  secondary  schools.  The 
remarkable  growth  of  the  junior  high  school  system  dur- 
ing the  past  five  years  leaves  little  doubt  of  the  per- 


182  HIGH  SCHOOL  ADMINISTRATION 

manency  of  such  an  institution  in  our  system  of  public 
schools.  This  growth  of  the  junior  high  school  idea 
means  that,  in  this  country,  students  of  education  are 
rapidly  accepting  differentiation  of  curriculums  begin- 
ning with  the  seventh  year.  The  differentiation  in  the 
junior  high  school  will  not  be  carried  to  the  extent  that 
it  will  be  carried  in  the  senior  high  school.  There  are, 
however,  certain  large  groups  for  which  specific  curricu- 
lums will  be  designed.  One  such  group  consists  of  those 
who  will  ultimately  enter  college.  Another  group  is 
composed  of  those  pupils  who  desire  a  general  liberal 
arts  training  in  the  senior  high  school  but  will  not  enter 
college.  A  third  is  composed  of  those  pupils  who  will 
enter  the  vocational  curriculums  of  the  senior  high 
school.  This  group  will  be  differentiated  in  curriculum- 
planning  into  three  or  four  subdivisions.  There  are 
those  girls  who  are  clearly  destined  for  the  household 
arts  curriculum  of  the  senior  high  school.  There  are 
boys  who  will  enter  the  industrial  pursuits.  There  are 
pupils  who  will  enter  commercial  life  as  clerks,  book- 
keepers, salesmen,  stenographers,  and  some  will  even- 
tually become  managers.  Clearly  there  must  be  a 
household  arts  curriculum,  a  manual  arts  curriculum, 
with  variations,  for  bo3's,  and  a  commercial  curriculum. 
In  many  communities  an  agricultural  curriculum  will 
need  to  be  added  to  these,  or  substituted  for  one  of 
them. 

Still  another  group  in  the  junior  high  school  is  com- 
posed of  those  boys  and  girls  who,  for  economic  reasons, 
never  will  enter  the  high  school,  and  for  whom  specific 
vocational  training  of  a  trade  nature  must  be  provided. 
This  will  mean  a  number  of  curriculums  leading  to 
apprenticeship  and,  in  many  instances,  fulfilling  the 
function,  in  part  at  least,  of  apprenticeships.     It  is  in 


CURRICULUM  ORGANIZATION  183 

this  field  that  the  junior  high  school  organization  will 
largely  justify  itself.  In  order  to  do  this  it  must  extend 
by  a  year  the  school  life  of  that  group  that  has  not  been 
entering  the  four-year  high  school.  And  it  must  pro- 
vide effective  continuation  work  for  those  whom  it  can- 
not hold  through  the  9th  grade.  The  George  Wash- 
ington High  School  of  Rochester,  N.  Y.,  offers  a  variety 
of  industrial  arts  curriculums  that  constitute  a  living 
prophecy  of  the  possibilities  of  the  junior  high  school  in 
industrial  education. 

What  curriculums,  then,  will  there  be  in  the  junior 
high  school?  In  general,  there  will  be  the  college  pre- 
paratory, general,  commercial,  industrial  arts  and  house- 
hold arts  for  those  pupils  destined  to  enter  the  senior 
high  school.  In  addition,  there  will  be  a  group  of  cur- 
riculums of  a  highly  specialized  trade  character  for  those 
who  will  never  enter  the  senior  high  school,  but  who  will 
at  once  become  wage-earners. 

The  principles  of  diversity  and  sequence,  and  of  con- 
stants, applicable  to  curriculum-making  in  the  junior 
high  school  will  be  the  same  as  in  the  senior  high  school. 
If  we  accept  the  principle  of  differentiation  in  the  junior 
high  school  grades  the  problem  of  constants,  or  of  the 
common  elements  as  they  are  called  by  Professor  Bag- 
ley,  is  a  matter  of  supreme  importance.  For  obvious 
reasons,  more  work  in  more  different  subjects  will  be 
prescribed  for  all  pupils  in  the  junior  high  school  than 
in  the  senior  high  school.  To  the  prescription  of  Eng- 
lish, social  science,  science,  music,  and  physical  educa- 
tion in  the  senior  high  school  must  be  added  arithmetic, 
geography,  and  the  manual  arts  in  the  junior  high 
school.  Great  educational  battles  will  be  fought  over 
the  amount  of  time  to  be  given  to  these  constants  and 
to  the  character  of  the  subject-matter  and  the  method 


184  fflGH   SCHOOL  ADMINISTRATION 

in  these  courses.  The  disagreement  as  to  the  content, 
organization,  method,  and  length  of  the  general  science 
course  is  characteristic  of  the  chaotic  condition  as  re- 
gards these  constants  in  the  junior  high  school  at  the 
present  time.  But  there  is  almost  as  much  disagree- 
ment on  mathematics  and  the  social  sciences.  Every 
development  in  these  grades  points  clearly,  however,  to 
the  general  adoption  of  differentiation  above  the  6th 
grade.  The  constants  will  not  be  permitted,  therefore, 
to  take  so  much  time  as  to  prevent  the  offering  of  defi- 
nite curriculums  in  these  grades. 

The  very  fact  that  the  number  of  constants  will  be 
greater  in  the  junior  high  school  than  in  the  senior  high 
school  will  make  less  difficult  the  problem  of  sequence 
and  diversity.  Once  the  battle  has  been  fought  and  the 
constants  agreed  upon,  the  matter  of  sequence  and 
diversity  will  have  been  practically  settled.  There  will 
be  a  sufficient  number  of  constants  running  through  two 
or  three  years  of  the  junior  high  school  to  assure  both 
the  desired  sequence  and  diversity. 

A  reorganization  of  curriculums  in  both  the  junior 
and  senior  high  schools,  with  a  distinct  differentiation 
of  curriculums  in  the  lower  school,  will  raise  the  question 
of  the  entrance  requirements  of  the  senior  high  school. 
Under  the  traditional  organization  of  schools  all  pupils 
are  placed  upon  the  same  basis  in  this  respect,  all  are 
put  through  the  same  paces  in  the  grades  and  have, 
presumably,  had  the  same  preparation  for  high  school. 
Differentiation  of  curriculums  may  in  a  measure  undo 
this  arrangement.  There  is  likely  to  be  some  differ- 
entiation of  entrance  requirements  as  well  as  of  cur- 
riculums. Completion  of  certain  curriculums  in  the 
junior  high  school  may  admit  to  certain  curriculums  in 
the  senior  high  school  but  not  to  others,  with  the  pro- 


CURRICULUM  ORGANIZATION  185 

vision,  always,  that  a  way  must  be  left  open,  without 
imposing  too  great  penalties,  for  industrious  and  capa- 
ble boys  and  girls  to  enter  any  senior  high  school  cur- 
riculum and  to  realize  any  ambition  that  the  public 
schools  will  permit.  The  senior  high  school  must,  of 
course,  always  be  held  open  for  those  overage  pupils 
who  ought  to  be  admitted,  regardless  of  scholastic  prep- 
aration, to  those  courses  that  will  be  of  most  profit  to 
them. 

There  may  be  differentiation  of  schools  as  well  as  of 
curriculums.  In  some  of  the  larger  cities  there  are 
manual  arts  high  schools,  commercial  high  schools,  and 
liberal  arts  high  schools,  but  the  sentiment  m  favor  of 
the  cosmopolitan  high  school  seems  to  be  growing.  The 
powerful  argument  in  favor  of  the  cosmopolitan  high 
school  is  the  social  argument.  It  is  a  dangerous  thing 
to  accentuate  the  social  stratification  of  society  by 
separating  in  our  secondary  schools  the  boys  and  girls 
who  are  destined  for  the  professions  and  for  positions  of 
leadership  in  our  social  and  industrial  life  from  the  boys 
and  girls  who  will  be  artisans  and  will  fill  subordinate 
positions.  The  same  theory  holds  in  large  measure  for 
the  junior  high  school. 

It  is  not  possible  within  the  limits  of  this  chapter  to 
go  into  details  regarding  the  organization  of  subject- 
matter  within  the  courses  in  the  high  school.  In  dis- 
cussing curriculum  policies  it  is  assumed  that  the  sub- 
ject-matter of  the  particular  course  will  be  selected  with 
a  view  to  the  special  needs  of  the  pupil  group  to  be 
served  by  that  curriculum  of  which  the  course  is  a  part. 
In  the  larger  school  it  will  be  possible  to  differentiate 
courses.  It  will  be  possible,  for  example,  to  have  one 
set  of  English  courses  for  pupils  who  ^v^ll  go  to  college, 
another  set  for  those  who  will  enter  vocations,  and  an- 


186  HIGH  SCHOOL  ADMINISTRATION 

other  set  for  those  who  will  neither  go  to  college  nor 
enter  the  vocations,  but  who  desire  more  general  train- 
ing. But  such  diflferentiation  cannot  be  justified  in  the 
case  of  constants.  It  is  very  important  that  the  leaders 
of  democracy  should  rub  elbows  with  the  rank  and  file 
of  democracy  in  some  of  the  courses  in  the  high  school. 
These  courses  must,  by  all  means,  be  the  constants. 
Any  great  differentiation  of  subject-matter  in  the  con- 
stants will,  therefore,  be  a  dangerous  thing,  but  beyond 
the  constants  there  will  be  Uttle  danger  of  too  much 
differentiation.  Eventually  the  only  limit  upon  it  will 
be  the  problem  of  administration. 


SOCIALIZED  RECITATION 

The  character  of  the  work  done  by  a  system  of  schools 
will  be  determined  primarily  by  the  methods  employed 
in  its  recitation  groups.  The  organization  and  type  of 
curriculums,  the  selection  of  subject-matter,  the  social 
organization  of  the  schools,  the  spirit  of  the  administra- 
tion, are  all  important  and  essential,  but  these  factors 
cannot  make  socialized  schools  unless  the  methods  of 
instruction  employed  in  the  classrooms  harmonize  with 
the  methods  of  democracy.  If  a  democracy  demands 
citizens  capable  of  independent  thought  and  initiative, 
citizens  who  can  co-operate,  who  conceive  the  highest 
purpose  in  life  to  be  service  to  society,  then  the  methods 
of  the  classroom  must  develop  such  a  citizenship. 

Where  the  aim  of  the  schools  is  to  train  boys  and 
girls  to  be  submissive  subjects  of  an  autocratic  state, 
certain  methods  must  be  followed  in  the  schoolroom; 
where  the  aim  is  to  create  upstanding  citizens  of  a 
democracy,  wholly  different  methods  must  be  employed. 
In  the  first  school  the  emphasis  must  be  placed  upon 
conformity,  in  the  second  upon  independent  thinking. 

Contemporary  thought,  investigation,  and  experimen- 
tation in  schools  of  education  and  in  public  schools  have 
done  much  toward  the  development  of  scientific  meth- 
ods. Experimental  and  educational  psychology  and 
child  study  have  made  invaluable  contributions  to  this 
end.  Standard  tests  and  measurements  and  statistics 
have  revealed  many  weak  places  and  have  already  set 
up  some  definite  standards  of  attainment.  In  the  bet- 
ter schools  there  has  been  a  resulting  improvement  in 
the  efSciency  of  classroom  instruction.     This  scientific 

187 


188  HIGH  SCHOOL  ADMINISTRATION 

attack  on  the  problems  of  method  is  only  in  its  infancy, 
but  is  in  every  way  essential  to  the  development  of  good 
schools,  and  must  be  continued  and  extended. 

There  has  been  a  tendency,  however,  to  overlook  the 
most  important  fact  of  the  school  and  of  the  recitation 
group,  the  fact  that  the  school  and  every  group  in  it 
present  social  situations  as  genuine  as  those  of  adult  life. 
Dewey  has  insisted  again  and  again  that  the  school  is 
life.  In  a  state  which  is  controlled  by  the  people  it  is 
imperative  that  this  corporate  life  of  the  school  and  its 
groups  be  so  used  as  to  evolve  in  its  individual  members 
those  habits,  prejudices,  and  interests  essential  to  good 
citizenship.  Of  course  in  an  autocracy  the  aim  must  be 
to  substitute  for  this  natural  life  a  forced  and  unnatural 
one,  to  suppress  instead  of  stimulate  certain  phases  of 
intellectual  curiosity  and  to  create  habits,  prejudices, 
and  interests  entirely  different  from  those  demanded  of 
a  free  people.  But  in  either  case  the  methods  of  the 
classroom  are  fundamental. 

The  socialized  recitation  must  be  based  on  a  socialized 
curriculum  and  subject-matter.  It  would  be  impossible 
to  maintain  a  natural  and  significant  social  situation  in 
a  class  in  an  American  high  school  by  drilling  on  the 
grammar  and  the  forms  of  Sanskrit.  Sanskrit  can  be  a 
practical  and  interesting  subject  of  study  for  only  a  few 
people.  High  school  children  might  be  compelled  to 
drill  over  Sanskrit,  even  to  master  it,  but  they  would 
have  to  be  driven  to  it,  and  only  in  rare  instances  would 
a  pupil  acquire  any  real  interest  in  a  subject  related  so 
remotely  to  modern  life.  Sanskrit  is  not  taught  in  our 
secondary  schools,  but  much  of  the  subject-matter  that 
has  crept  in  or  has  been  retained  through  the  force  of 
tradition  has  about  as  little  interest  for  boys  and  girls 
as  has  this  dead  language. 


SOCIALIZED   RECITATION  189 

Much  dead  wood  has  been  retained  in  the  curricu- 
lums  through  the  force  of  habit  and  of  tradition,  or,  in 
the  case  of  the  high  school,  has  crept  in  through  the 
influence  of  the  university  and  of  the  college.  For  ex- 
ample, much  of  the  subject-matter  of  the  traditional 
courses  in  mathematics  has  about  as  much  relation  to 
the  needs  of  boys  and  girls,  or  of  adults,  as  has  the  San- 
skrit language.  In  history  and  civics  much  of  the  work 
has  consisted  of  drills  on  relatively  unimportant  dates 
and  facts  of  military  and  dynastic  history  and  the 
mechanical  details  of  constitutions  and  forms  of  gov- 
ernment. In  English  we  have  compelled  the  mem- 
orization of  the  principles  and  forms  of  grammar,  but 
we  have  failed  to  obtain  habits  of  correct  speech  because 
our  methods  have  not  caused  the  pupils  to  feel  the  need 
of  correct  speech  and  have  not  constantly  practised 
them  in  it.  It  is  not  necessary  to  go  into  detail  in  de- 
scribing this  type  of  unsocialized  subject-matter.  The 
movement  for  the  elimination  of  such  matter  and  the 
substitution  of  vital  material  has  been  so  pronounced 
in  recent  years  that  alert  teachers  are  alive  to  the 
situation. 

It  is  not,  however,  merely  a  question  of  subject-mat- 
ter, but  one  of  guidance  as  well.  The  study  of  Latin, 
for  example,  is  of  cultural  and  vocational  value  to  some 
boys  and  girls  and  should  be  retained  in  the  curriculum. 
But  for  many  others  it  has  no  value,  because  it  is  im- 
possible for  them  to  learn  it,  or  to  become  interested  in 
it,  or  because  of  the  little  service  it  can  ever  render 
them  in  the  vocations  which  they  are  likely  to  follow. 
There  are  still  high  schools  in  which  every  boy  and  girl 
must  pursue  the  study  of  Latin,  or  geometry,  or  algebra, 
or  of  other  subjects  that,  for  many,  have  no  cultural  or 
vocational  value.     For  many  boys  and  girls  these  studies 


190  raCH  SCHOOL  ADMINISTRATION 

are  of  no  more  value  than  cube  and  square  root  in 
arithmetic  and  should  be  eliminated  from  their  curricu- 
lums.  The  subject-matter  in  all  the  courses  must 
be  just  as  vital  to  the  immediate  needs  of  boys  and 
girls  as  it  is  possible  to  make  it,  and  every  pupil  must 
be  directed  into  those  courses  that  are  significant  to 
him.  Given  such  subject-matter  and  a  proper  guidance 
of  pupils  into  courses  and  curriculums,  a  situation  is 
created  that  forms  the  basis  for  socialized  instruction. 

In  such  instruction  the  emphasis  will  be  placed  upon 
pupil  participation  and  co-operation.  The  teacher  will 
keep  herself  in  the  background  just  as  much  as  is  con- 
sistent with  economy  of  time.  Frequently  the  pupils 
will  work  together  in  the  collection  of  material  and  in 
the  presentation  of  it  so  that  the  class  will  become  an 
open  forum  for  discussion.  Every  pupil  who  presents  a 
proposition  will  be  obliged  to  defend  it  by  citation  of 
authority  or  by  adequate  proof.  They  will  not  wait 
for  questions  from  the  teacher  but  will  often  question 
one  another  and  will  carry  on  the  work  of  the  class  fre- 
quently without  direction.  When  a  class  is  working 
in  this  spirit  a  premium  is  put  upon  individual  investi- 
gation, reading,  and  research.  The  pupils  are  dominated 
by  a  spirit  of  inquiry  and  respect  for  the  truth  and  a 
desire  to  know  the  truth.  Only  in  such  an  atmosphere 
can  be  developed  those  qualities  of  leadership  and  intel- 
ligent following  fundamental  to  the  life  of  a  democracy. 

A  large  element  among  American  teachers,  particu- 
larly in  the  colleges  and  universities,  has  been  accus- 
tomed to  decry  the  importance  of  the  study  of  methods  in 
the  preparation  of  teachers.  This  element  has  scorned 
the  work  of  the  normal  schools  and  of  other  teacher- 
training  agencies  and  the  insistence  of  public-school 
supervisors  on  the  development  of  efficient  methods. 


SOCIALIZED  RECITATION  l&l 

But  there  is  ample  evidence  of  the  power  of  the  methods 
employed  in  the  classroom  in  forming  the  character 
of  a  nation.  Modern  public-school  systems  have  now- 
been  in  existence  over  a  hundred  years,  and  we  can 
begin  to  judge  them  by  their  results.  Without  doubt 
the  German  schools  have  been  the  chief  factor  in  the 
creation  of  a  nation  blind  in  its  devotion  to  a  ruthless, 
autocratic  government.  The  loyalty  of  the  German 
people  to  the  HohenzoUern  autocracy  was  created  first 
of  all  in  the  German  classroom. 

In  a  recent  address  Dean  James  E,  Russell  described 
the  results  of  the  methods  used  in  the  German  schools. 
I  quote  at  length. 

In  school  he  [the  German  boyl  finds  himself  in  a  class  of 
thirty  or  forty  other  boys  of  the  same  age,  the  same  social 
status,  and  with  the  same  general  purpose  in  Ufe.  .  .  .  His 
schoolroom  is  generally  unadorned  save  by  portraits  of  the 
emperor  and  empress,  the  crown  prince,  and  perhaps  a  few 
other  notables.  The  room  is  not  surrounded  by  blackboards 
as  in  American  schools.  A  small  board  stands  on  an  easel  be- 
side the  teacher's  desk — the  most  significant  fact  in  the  equip- 
ment of  a  German  school.  It  means  a  type  of  work  wholly 
foreign  to  our  mode  of  recitation.  In  fact,  I  know  of  no  word 
in  the  German  language  that  will  adequately  translate  our  word 
"recitation."  The  German  boy  does  not  recite  lessons;  he  re- 
ceives instruction.  He  is  never  assigned  tasks  wholly  new  to 
be  worked  out  at  home.  Home  tasks  are  by  way  of  reviews  or 
elaboration  of  what  has  been  learned  in  school.  And  what  he 
learns  at  school  is  given  him  by  his  teachers.  He  is  never  en- 
couraged to  guess  at  anything. 

His  teacher  knows  what  he  should  learn,  and  under  the  skil- 
ful guidance  of  a  master  he  learns  what  is  set  down  for  his  grade 
to  acquire  in  the  most  expeditious  way  and  without  mistakes. 
He  has  no  text-books  with  elaborate  foot-notes,  glossary,  and 
compendium.  In  history,  for  example,  the  text  is  what  we 
should  call  a  syllabus  and  in  mathematics  it  is  a  collection  of 
problems.     He  rarely  consults  a  reference  book  and  he  is  denied 


192  HIGH  SCHOOL  ADMINISTRATION 

the  use  of  a  library  except  under  a  teacher's  guidance.  It  is  a 
teacher's  business  to  teach,  not  to  waste  a  pupU's  time  in  hap- 
hazard guessing.  So  the  boy  goes  to  school  every  day,  in  win- 
ter before  daylight,  returning  after  dark  at  night. 

In  the  making  of  Germans  little  weight  is  attached  to  the 
content  of  the  curriculum.  .  .  .  The  principle  that  methods 
of  teaching  and  modes  of  discipline  make  the  man,  while  what 
he  learns  determines  his  career,  will  surprise  some  Americans 
who  have  delighted  to  deride  methods  as  a  hobby  of  those  who 
have  nothing  to  teach.  Their  idolatry  of  German  scholarship, 
moreover,  would  be  more  intelligible  if  they  knew  the  signifi- 
cance of  German  methods  of  instruction.  .  .  . 

By  example  and  precept,  by  persuasion  if  possible  or  by  force 
if  necessary,  the  German  teacher  attains  the  end  to  which  his 
profession  leads — "the  making  of  God-fearing,  patriotic,  self- 
supporting  subjects  of  imperial  Germany." 

This  legend,  just  quoted,  stands  at  the  head  of  every  ofiicial 
document  issued  by  the  Prussian  ministry  of  education  for  the 
guidance  of  teachers  in  the  conduct  of  school  work.  The  direct 
object  is  summed  up  in  the  one  word  "subject" — not  citizens 
in  a  democratic  or  representative  government  but  subjects  of 
an  imperial  power.  Military  rule  demands  obedience,  implicit, 
unhesitating,  cheerful  obedience.  The  ideal  of  German  patriot- 
ism bears  its  first  fruit  in  the  German  school  when  boys  learn 
to  respect  authority,  to  believe  what  they  are  taught,  and  to 
acquire  the  habits,  mental  and  physical,  of  their  masters.  .  .  . 

The  state  that  depends  upon  military  power  for  its  security 
and  advancement  must  imitate  and,  so  far  as  I  can  see,  any 
variation  whatever  from  the  German  norm  would  be  a  confes- 
sion of  weakness.  But  if  other  ideals  control,  such  as  the 
theory  that  the  greatest  good  of  all  is  best  subserved  by  the 
highest  development  of  each,  some  other  system  of  education 
must  be  found  that  will  assure  civil  order  and  social  security. 

No  thoughtful  student  of  education  will  claim  that 
the  case  for  the  German  schools  has  been  overstated  by 
Doctor  Russell.  His  description  may  be  accepted  as 
the  cold  and  scientific  analysis  of  an  authority. 

When  we  reflect  that  the  spirit  of  modem  Germany 
has  been  created  by  these  methods  and  that  its  sys- 


SOCIALIZED  RECITATION 


193 


tern  of  schools  has  been  used  in  an  attempt  to  make 
an  autocratic  power  master  of  the  world,  that  the  dia- 
bolical efficiency  of  the  German  schools  threatened  the 
development  and  happiness  of  all  liberal  peoples,  and 
endangered  the  very  existence  of  democracy  on  the 
earth,  the  imperative  need  for  developing  right  methods 
in  American  classrooms  is  vividly  apparent. 

No  one  would  contend  that  such  a  spirit  as  has  been 
described  above  has  characterized  our  methods.  Here 
there  has  been  more  freedom,  more  encouragement  of 
study  and  research,  of  initiative  and  independent 
thought,  more  toleration,  but  our  methods  have  been 
rather  unconscious  than  conscious,  and,  in  many  re- 
spects, have  not  been  calculated  to  develop  a  thinking 
citizenship. 

Miss  Romiett  Stevens,  of  Teachers  College,  Columbia 
University,  in  her  doctor's  thesis  made  a  study  of  the 
use  of  the  question  in  the  American  classroom.  She 
had  stenographic  reports  made  of  many  recitations  in 
the  high  schools  and  in  some  classes  in  the  upper  grades 
of  the  elementary  schools  of  New  York  City  and  vicin- 
ity. This  study  reveals  some  very  interesting  condi- 
tions. The  following  are  typical  results  of  her  inves- 
tigations: 

LENGTH  OF  RECITATION,  FORTY-FIVE  MINUTES 


SUBJECT 

NO.  CASES 

LOWEST   NUMBER 
or   QUESTIONS 

HIGHEST 
NUMBER 

English 

19 
20 

17 

25  -  39  -  49  -  55 
41  -  43  -  53  -  61 
35  -  56  -  68  -  70 

200 
142 
165 

History 

Mathematics 

Miss    Stevens    followed    several    groups    of    pupils 
throughout  the  day,  in  order,  as  she  said,  "to  find  out 


194  HIGH  SCHOOL  ADMINISTRATION 

the  amount  and  kind  of  intellectual  stimulus  meted  out 
to  our  pupils  by  the  questions." 
Here  are  the  records  of  two  groups: 

FIRST-YEAR  HIGH   SCHOOL— FORTY-MINUTE  PERIODS 

German 176  questions. 

English 88 

Algebra 120 

Latin 61 

Science 71 

Total 516 

7TH-GRADE  GROUP— THIRTY-MINUTE  PERIODS 

History 76  questions. 

Mathematics 85         " 

English  (two  periods) 97         " 

French 65         " 

Geography 88         " 

Total 411         " 

The  cases  given  are  only  typical  of  what  Miss  Stevens 
found  and  may  be  assumed  to  be  fairly  typical  of  con- 
ditions existing  generally  even  in  the  better  schools 
throughout  the  country.  There  are,  of  course,  many 
excellent  teachers  who  are  far  more  effective,  some  who 
are  skilled  in  throwing  the  maximum  of  responsibility 
upon  the  group  and  the  individual,  and  in  giving  the 
maximum  of  opportunity  for  thought  and  self-expres- 
sion. But  these  teachers  are  pioneers,  while  the  great 
body  of  instructors  in  American  high  schools  are  using 
the  methods  so  graphically  portrayed  by  Miss  Stevens. 
What  opportunity  is  there  for  the  cultivation  of  uiitia- 
live,  for  stimulating  intellectual  curiosity  or  indepen- 
dent thinking,  for  practice  in  co-operation,  in  recita- 
tions in  which  the  teacher  asks  in  forty-five-minute 
periods  from  100  to  200  questions.     Think  of  a  first- 


SOCIALIZED  RECITATION  105 

year  high  school  group  facing  a  daily  machine-gun  fire 
of  516  questions  or  of  a  yth-grade  group  facing  a  daily 
fusillade  of  411  questions!  What  opportunity  could 
there  be  for  thinking?  Why  should  a  teacher  ask  even 
55  questions  in  an  English  recitation  of  forty-five  min- 
utes? It  is  recognized,  of  course,  that  in  some  recita- 
tions where  drill  is  the  aim  a  large  number  of  questions 
may  be  legitimately  asked,  but  it  was  not  such  recita- 
tions that  Miss  Stevens  was  investigating. 

Miss  Stevens  has  admirably  analyzed  the  results  ob- 
tained by  this  method  of  instruction.  In  pouituig  out 
the  weaknesses  of  this  method,  she  has  at  the  same  time 
emphasized  some  of  the  processes  that  must  go  on  in 
the  right  type  of  class-meeting.     She  says: 

The  large  number  of  questions  suggests  that  the  teacher  is 
doing  most  of  the  work  of  the  class  hour  instead  of  directing  the 
pupils  in  the  doing.  One  reason  why  150  questions  can  be  asked 
in  forty  minutes  is  due  to  the  fact  that  the  teacher  can  think 
more  rapidly  and  talk  more  rapidly  than  his  pupils,  and  so,  in 
order  to  cover  a  large  amount  of  subject-matter,  he  carries  the 
trend  of  the  lesson  through  his  questions,  the  pupils  merely 
punctuating  the  series  with  short  answers  from  the  text. 

The  large  number  of  questions  suggests  that  whenever  teach- 
ers, either  individually  or  collectively,  preserve  such  a  pace  for 
any  length  of  time,  the  largest  educational  assets  that  can  be 
reckoned  are  verbal  memory  and  superficial  judgment.  It  is  quite 
obvious  that  with  the  rapid-fire  method  of  questioning  there  is 
no  time  allowed  a  pupil  to  go  very  far  afield  in  his  experience  in 
order  to  recall  or  to  associate  ideas  in  fruitful  ways.  He  is  called 
upon  merely  to  reflect  somebody  else — the  author  of  his  text- 
book generally — in  small  and  carefully  dissected  portions,  or  to 
give  forth  snap  judgments  at  the  point  of  the  bayonet. 

A  method  that,  with  amplification  and  refinement, 
would  serve  admirably  the  ends  of  German  autocracy. 


196  HIGH  SCHOOL  ADMINISTRATION 

Miss  Stevens  further  emphasizes,  by  contrast,  essen- 
tials in  good  method. 

When  pupils  become  interested  in  their  work  and  begin  to 
think  for  themselves,  it  is  very  natural  for  them  to  ask  ques- 
tions, and  they  wiU  do  it  invariably  if  allowed  to  do  so.  In  the 
elementary  school  the  children  are  encouraged  to  seek  informa- 
tion, but  in  high  school  there  is  no  time  apparently  for  individual 
initiative.  Take  what  the  text -book  gives  you  and  be  satisfied 
seems  to  be  the  watchword  of  many  classrooms.  A  glance 
through  the  stenographic  reports  shows  that  few  questions  are 
asked  by  the  pupils,  and  when  asked  they  are  passed  over 
apologetically  or  deferred  to  a  more  convenient  season.  .  ,  , 

The  large  number  of  questions  suggests  that  in  actual  prac- 
tice there  is  very  little  effort  put  forth  to  teach  our  boys  and  girls 
to  be  self-reliant,  independent  mental  workers.  The  discrepancy 
between  our  theory  and  practice  is  nowhere  more  patent. 

There  is  no  use  in  claiming  to  teach  boys  and  girls  how  to 
study  and  how  to  command  their  own  intellectual  forces  by  the 
current  practice  of  keeping  them  at  the  point  of  the  bayonet  in 
rehearsal  of  text-book  facts  at  the  rate  of  two  or  four  per 
minute. 

The  principles  that  should  govern  teaching  in  the 
secondary  schools  are  not  fundamentally  different  from 
those  that  should  govern  in  the  elementary  schools  or 
in  higher  institutions  of  learning,  but  it  is  the  secondary 
school  that  is  charged  with  the  responsibility  of  the  edu- 
cation of  youth  in  its  most  impressionable  years.  It  is 
imperative,  therefore,  that  American  secondary-school 
teachers  give  the  utmost  attention  to  this  problem  and 
endeavor  through  continuous  experimentation  to  de- 
velop those  methods  best  calculated  to  train  good  citi- 
zens for  the  republic. 

The  outstanding  features  of  these  methods  are  already 
clearly  discernible. 


SOCIALIZED  RECITATION  197 

1.  The  questioning  done  by  the  teacher  must  be  well 
planned  and  with  a  view  to  provoking  thought  and  dis- 
cussion on  the  part  of  the  class.  There  must  be  just  as 
little  questioning  as  is  consistent  with  economy  of  time 
and  thought.  Time  and  opportunity  must  be  given 
for  the  pupils  to  think  and  to  express  their  own  thoughts. 
Class  discussion  is  necessary.  The  pupils  must  cease 
to  wait  always  on  the  questions  or  on  the  direction  of 
the  teacher. 

2.  If  scientific  questioning  is  to  be  done,  the  assign- 
ments must  be  carefully  made.  The  chief  responsibility 
of  the  teacher  in  conducting  the  work  of  the  class  will 
be  in  planning  assignments  of  work  that  will  result  in 
good  recitations. 

3.  In  all  work  there  must  be  a  constant  effort  to  make 
the  subject-matter  of  instruction  of  vital  interest  and  of 
practical  value  to  the  pupils  through  relating  it  to  life 
and  to  community  interests.  The  pupil  who  leaves  the 
study  of  Latin  without  having  had  his  use  of  the  mother 
tongue  perceptibly  improved  or  without  having  felt  in 
the  study  of  the  Latin  literature  some  of  the  universal 
experiences  and  longings  of  the  race,  and  having  had 
his  outlook  on  life  and  his  sympathies  broadened  thereby, 
has  not  been  well  taught.  In  physiology  and  hygiene, 
or  in  community  civics,  many  community  problems 
should  be  studied  by  the  class.  In  like  manner  history, 
English,  geography,  the  sciences  should  be  used  to 
stimulate  the  interest  of  the  boys  and  girls  in  practical 
problems.  In  some  subjects  the  relation  may  seem 
remote  but  often  the  remoteness  is  more  apparent  than 
real. 

4.  Finally,  every  opportunity  must  be  used  for  form- 
ing in  the  boys  and  girls  the  habits  of  co-operation, 
prejudices  in  favor  of  the  social  good,  interest  in  com- 


198  HIGH  SCHOOL  ADMINISTRATION 

munity  affairs,  and  the  desire  to  assume  civic  respon- 
sibilities. When  we  have  set  out  to  attain  these  ends 
some  of  the  sins  of  the  past  will  become  virtues.  For 
example,  it  will  probably  no  longer  be  an  unpardonable 
sin  for  one  pupil  to  help  another.  Instead,  a  premium 
will  be  put  on  certain  forms  of  co-operation  and  team- 
work among  members  of  the  class.  Intellectual  curi- 
osity will  be  stimulated  and  prized.  Efforts  will  be 
made  to  give  special  opportunities  for  the  exceptionally 
gifted  pupils  with  a  view  to  giving  them  the  most  ade- 
quate training  possible  for  leadership. 

The  application  of  these  principles  will  vary  in  dif- 
ferent subjects.  There  is,  for  example,  far  less  oppor- 
tunity for  certain  types  of  initiative  in  the  study  of 
mechanical  drawing  than  there  is  in  the  study  of  Eng- 
lish. In  mechanical  drawing  much  of  the  work  must 
be  by  imitation.  In  this  subject  the  pupil  must  spend 
a  great  part  of  his  time  implicitly  following  directions. 
In  following  these  directions  there  is  little  room  for  in- 
dependence of  thought,  but  when  he  has  mastered  the 
fundamentals  of  the  subject  there  is  ample  room  for  the 
employment  of  the  project  method.  The  pupil  may  be 
required  to  make  drawings  by  copying  or  he  may  be 
given  projects  to  work  out  on  his  own  responsibility 
or  in  co-operation  with  his  fellows.  In  some  schools 
mechanical-drawing  classes  have  designed  and  drawn 
the  plans  for  furniture,  residences,  gymnasiums,  school- 
buildings,  and  for  many  other  real  projects. 

Every  subject  offers  its  opportunities.  A  group  in  a 
class  in  physiology  and  hygiene  made  a  study  of  the 
milk- supply  of  the  city.  Before  they  had  finished  a 
thorough  investigation  they  had  widened  their  scientific 
knowledge  and  had  gained  a  new  insight  and  a  new 
interest  in  many  practical  civic  problems.    The  English 


SOCIALIZED  RECITATION  199 

classes  in  a  large  high  school  made  a  survey  of  all  the 
mistakes  in  grammar  in  all  classes,  and  in  a  Good  Eng- 
lish Week  conducted  a  campaign  for  better  use  of  the 
mother  tongue.  Citizens  addressed  the  pupils  on  the 
value  of  good  English  in  business,  in  social  intercourse, 
and  in  the  professions.  At  the  close  of  the  week  the 
study  of  English  had  a  greater  significance  to  every 
boy  and  girl  in  the  school,  and  at  the  same  time  pupils 
and  teachers  had  done  much  toward  discovering  not 
only  the  defects  that  must  be  corrected  but  the  methods 
of  correcting  them.  A  class  in  geometry  made  a  most 
interesting  collection  of  problems  drawn  from  every-day 
life,  illustrating  the  principles  which  they  were  studying. 
To  many  the  subject  of  geometry  would  seem  most 
difficult  of  socialization,  but  for  this  class  the  subject 
seemed  practical.  A  subject  that  cannot  be  made  of 
vital  and  immediate  interest  to  the  boys  and  girls  prob- 
ably has  no  place  in  the  curriculum. 

In  the  first  century  and  a  quarter  of  their  existence 
the  public  schools  of  the  United  States  have  been  suc- 
cessful. If  America  was  true  to  her  ideals  in  entering 
the  World  War  on  the  side  of  the  liberal  governments, 
that  fact  was  largely  due  to  her  public  schools.  The 
schools  have  fostered  in  the  hearts  of  the  boys  and  girls 
the  love  of  freedom  and  a  faith  in  democracy.  America 
was  slow  in  coming  to  a  full  realization  of  the  issues  at 
stake  in  the  great  conflict.  For  more  than  two  years 
and  a  half  she  remained  out  of  the  struggle  unconvinced 
of  her  duty,  but  at  all  times,  thanks  to  the  public  schools, 
the  people  were  at  heart  deeply  in  sympathy  with  the 
Allies  in  their  fight  for  democracy,  and  finally  their 
training  and  their  faith  led  them  in. 

No  single  generation  can  solve  the  problems  of  democ- 
racy or  fully  achieve  it.     Every  epoch  will  bring  forth 


200  HIGH  SCHOOL  ADMINISTRATION 

its  new  problems.  The  welfare  of  free  governments 
requires  that  the  methods  employed  in  the  public  schools 
be  such  as  to  insure  that  each  generation  will  be  pre- 
pared for  its  responsibilities.  It  is  imperative  that  we 
become  nationally  conscious  of  these  methods.  Public 
safety  will  no  longer  permit  the  large  body  of  American 
high  school  teachers  to  drift  along  in  their  work  largely 
unconscious  of  the  meaning  of  the  methods  which  they 
employ. 

There  are  many  signs  of  imrest.  Some  fear  that  we 
are  entering  a  period  fraught  with  many  dangers.  The 
schools  must  stand  as  the  bulwark  against  violent  revo- 
lution. They  must  do  this  first  by  so  educating  all  the 
people  in  politics,  economics,  and  sociology  that  they 
can  have  the  basic  information  for  thinking  their  prob- 
lems through  to  solution,  and,  second,  by  developing  in 
them  the  ability  to  initiate  and  co-operate,  and  the  spirit 
of  fair  play  and  toleration  upon  which  all  co-operation 
must  be  based. 

The  method  employed  in  the  public  high  schools  of 
America  is  a  matter  of  national  concern.  If  a  nation 
loyal  to  Prussian  autocracy  could  be  created  in  a  half- 
century  by  the  methods  used  in  the  German  schools, 
then  it  follows  that  the  American  public  schools  may 
be  used  for  the  national  weal  or  woe.  The  great  Ameri- 
can experiment  cannot  succeed  if  the  public  schools  do 
not  create  a  citizenship  with  a  faith  in  democracy  and 
with  the  capacity  for  carrying  on  the  experiment. 


it    HA  'Y 


SUPERVISED  STUDY 

Few  movements  affecting  so  vitally  the  traditional 
organization  of  the  American  secondary  school  have 
gained  such  wide-spread  recognition  as  has  supervised 
study.  A  decade  or  two  ago  the  secondary  schools  of 
this  country  held  sacred  the  proposition  that  forty  miQ- 
utes  was  the  length  of  the  classroom  exercise.  The  pu- 
pils were  dismissed  at  the  end  of  the  forty  minutes  with 
the  assignment  that  so  many  problems  were  to  be  solved 
before  the  corresponding  hour  of  the  next  day.  How 
they  were  solved,  the  methods  used,  the  time  wasted, 
the  habits  formed,  or  the  disgust  and  dislike  for  the 
subject  because  of  inability  to  do  the  work  assigned — ■ 
these  were  not  the  concern  of  the  school.  The  teacher's 
duty  was  to  test  the  pupils  in  such  a  way  as  to  detect 
how  much  and  how  well  they  had  done  their  work.  It 
was  her  duty  to  mark  zero  for  the  day  the  lad  who 
failed  to  report  any  problems  solved.  A  splendid  in- 
spiration for  the  next  day's  work ! 

During  the  past  decade  there  has  been  a  gradual 
shifting  of  the  emphasis  from  the  recitation  to  the 
supervision  of  study.  There  is  no  section  of  the  coun- 
try in  which  some  of  the  leading  secondary  schools  are 
not  organized  definitely  for  the  supervision  of  study. 
In  a  recent  survey  it  was  discovered  that  in  an  un- 
selected  group  of  schools  from  Ohio  to  California  super- 
vised-study  programmes  had  been  worked  out  in  repre- 
sentative schools  in  all  parts  of  the  country,  and  that 
the  number  operating  such  programmes  was  compara- 
tively large. 

One  of  the  most  significant  facts  bearing  upon  this 


202  mCH  SCHOOL  ADMINISTRATION 

topic  is  found  in  the  proceedings  of  the  North  Central 
Association  of  Colleges  and  Secondary  Schools  for  the 
year  191 7.  The  association  formally  recognized  in  its 
191 7  meeting  a  new  type  of  period  by  adopting  the  fol- 
lowing resolution:  "Additional  time  added  to  the  reci- 
tation period  as  defined  under  present  North  Central 
Association  Standard,  for  the  purpose  of  supervised 
study,  shall  not  be  interpreted  to  mean  a  double  period 
but  a  single  recitation  study  period."  This  was  an 
important  forward  step.  Some  state  inspectors  hold- 
ing to  the  letter  of  the  previous  standards  of  the  associa- 
tion had  refused  to  accredit  schools  operating  a  super- 
vised study  programme,  especially  if  the  teachers  were 
teaching  more  than  240  minutes  daily. 

While  serving  as  chairman  of  the  Commission  on 
Unit  Courses  and  Curricula  of  the  North  Central  Asso- 
ciation, Doctor  Charles  Hughes  Johnston  called  the  at- 
tention of  the  association  particularly  to  that  standard 
of  accrediting  secondary  schools  which  reads: 

"The  efficiency  of  instruction,  the  acquired  habits  of 
thought  and  study,  the  general  intellectual  and  moral 
tone  of  a  school  are  paramount  factors,  and,  therefore, 
only  schools  which  rank  well  in  these  particulars,  as 
evidenced  by  rigid,  thoroughgoing,  S3rmpathetic  inspec- 
tion, shall  be  considered  eligible  for  the  accredited  list." 

In  the  work  which  he  began  he  recognized  that  the 
association  was  taking  note  of  the  new  function  of  the 
school  in  assuming  the  responsibility  for  acquired  habits 
of  thought  and  study.  Accordingly,  in  discussing  the 
efforts  of  schoolmen  to  elaborate  the  possibilities  of  a 
qualitative  definition  of  the  unit  of  high  school  work, 
based  upon  the  best  practice  in  North  Central  high 
schools,  he  says:  "The  present  report.  Part  II  .  .  . 
with   the   modifications   our   commission   will   suggest 


SUPERVISED  STUDY  203 

presently  represents,  therefore,  clearly  a  careful  attempt 
to  propose  to  the  association  a  set  of  recommendations 
which  do  definitely  touch  the  pedagogical  problem 
avoided  so  completely  by  the  quantitative  unit."  In 
part  II  of  the  report  to  which  Doctor  Johnston  referred 
the  first  sentence  reads:  "It  is  recommended  that  longer 
periods  be  provided  for  purposes  of  supervised  study." 
Later  in  this  same  report  there  is  a  recommendation 
that  in  schools  operating  a  supervised-study  schedule 
the  laboratory  periods  should  be  study-recitation  periods 
of  from  sixty  to  seventy-five  minutes  in  length,  in  ac- 
cordance with  the  standards  proposed  by  the  Commit- 
tee on  Reorganization  of  Secondary  Education  of  the 
National  Educational  Association. 

Clearly  supervised  study  has  already  made  itself  felt 
in  the  organization,  administration,  and  standardiza- 
tion of  modern  high  schools.  But  this  applies  particu- 
larly to  the  senior  cycle  of  secondary  education.  In  the 
junior  high  school,  whether  because  of  its  closer  connec- 
tions with  the  practices  of  the  elementary  school,  or  be- 
cause of  a  greater  felt  need  for  it,  supervised  study  is 
universally  the  custom. 

In  many  cities  where  new  modern  junior  high  school 
plants  are  either  projected  or  are  under  way,  the  old- 
time  study  room  is  conspicuous  for  its  absence.  That 
supervised  study  is  commonly  recognized  for  the  junior 
high  school  is  evidenced  by  the  additional  fact  that  the 
North  Central  Association  has  gone  on  record,  recom- 
mending that  "  the  junior  high  school  at  least  make  co- 
ordinate its  emphasis  upon  the  direction  of  study  and 
the  traditional  activity  of  reciting."  It  has  further 
recommended  "a  daily  schedule  of  six  full  hours  of 
study,  recitation,  or  laboratory  work,  and  five  full  hours 
as  a  maximum  teaching  schedule." 


204  HIGH  SCHOOL  ADMINISTRATION 

The  attempt  to  standardize  an  educational  practice 
by  such  an  organization  as  the  North  Central  Associa- 
tion is  an  indication  that  that  practice  has  become  a 
fixed  part  of  the  administrative  organization  of  the  sec- 
ondary school.  In  fact,  this  marks  the  beginning  of  the 
second  stage  of  a  movement — that  stage  in  which  there 
is  an  attempt  to  evaluate  the  relative  merit  of  this  or 
that  type  of  organization.  The  merit  of  the  movement 
itsslf  is  no  longer  questioned.  It  seems  reasonably  safe 
to  assume  that  supervised  study  has  become  a  widely 
acknowledged  responsibility  of  the  secondary  school. 

There  are  certain  fundamental  reasons  why  the  super- 
vision of  study  has  outlived  its  day  of  ''fad"  and  has 
become  recognized  as  the  school's  responsibility. 

In  the  first  place,  thoughtful  educational  writers,  be- 
ginning with  McMurry  in  his  book  **How  to  Study" 
and  continuing  with  Judd,  Parker,  Hall-Quest,  John- 
ston, Colvin,  and  others,  have  championed  supervision 
of  study  as  a  part  of  the  school's  work.  They  have 
advocated  either  a  type  of  organization  that  would  pro- 
vide definitely  for  supervision  of  study  or  a  socializa- 
tion of  the  recitation  itself  so  that  the  emphasis  would 
be  shifted  from  the  formal  work  of  reciting  to  pupil 
co-operative  effort. 

Of  the  latter  type  of  recitation  Dewey  is  the  best  ex- 
ponent and  gives  the  clearest  statement.    He  says: 

''Where  the  school  work  consists  in  simply  learning 
lessons,  mutual  assistance,  instead  of  being  the  most 
natural  form  of  co-operation  and  association,  becomes  a 
clandestine  effort  to  relieve  one's  neighbor  of  his  proper 
duties.  Where  active  work  is  going  on,  all  this  is 
changed.  Helping  others,  instead  of  being  a  form  of 
charity  which  impoverishes  the  recipient,  is  simply  an 
aid  in  setting  free  the  powers  and  furthering  the  im- 


SUPERVISED   STUDY  205 

pulse  of  the  one  helped.  A  spirit  of  free  communica- 
tion, of  interchange  of  ideas,  suggestions,  results,  both 
successes  and  failures  of  previous  experiences,  becomes 
the  dominating  note  of  the  recitation.  So  far  as  emula- 
tion enters  in,  it  is  in  the  comparison  of  individuals,  not 
with  regard  to  the  quantity  of  information  personally 
absorbed,  but  with  reference  to  the  quality  of  work 
done — the  genuine  community  standard  of  value.  In 
an  informal  but  all  the  more  pervasive  way,  the  school 
life  organizes  itself  on  a  social  basis." 

Ip  outlining  the  work  before  the  Commission  on  Unit 
Courses  and  Curricula  of  the  North  Central  Associa- 
tion, Doctor  Johnston  stated  that  "Supervised  study 
means  something  much  more  fundamental  than  some 
arbitrary  lengthening  of  the  class  period,  and  mechani- 
cal division  of  its  activities  into  study  and  reciting.  It 
means  a  new  kind  of  educating  process  and  a  new  ideal 
of  mental  economy  and  of  co-operative  intellectual 
work  through  class  or  group  organization." 

These  are  good  pictures  of  the  spirit  of  supervised 
study.  Any  change  in  organization  that  does  not  in- 
clude a  complete  socialization  of  the  work  in  the  class- 
room misses  the  real  point  involved.  Supervision  of 
study  is  more  than  a  negative  solution  of  the  problem 
of  securing  preparation  on  the  part  of  the  pupil.  It  is 
the  means  by  which  the  recitation  becomes  a  laboratory 
in  which  activity  on  the  part  of  the  pupil  precedes  the 
giving  of  information  by  the  teacher. 

In  the  second  place,  supervised  study  undoubtedly 
has  some  psychological  justification.  Judd  has  written 
an  excellent  chapter  on  the  psychological  aspects  of  the 
problem  in  his  "Psychology  of  High  School  Subjects." 
He  makes  it  clear  that  there  are  sound  reasons  for  in- 
cluding supervised  study  in  the  school  programme. 


206  HIGH  SCHOOL  ADMINISTRATION 

Colvin,  in  discussing  supervised  study,  emphasizes 
also  its  psychological  aspects.  "It  is  the  teacher,"  he 
says,  "who  should  aid  and  lead  his  pupils  in  their  schol- 
arly pursuits;  he  should  not  appear,  more  than  is  abso- 
lutely necessary,  as  an  umpire  in  the  game  of  learning, 
or  as  a  taskmaster,  who  exacts  his  dues.  More  and 
more  it  is  being  recognized  that  the  teacher  must  be  a 
teacher  in  the  only  sense  in  which  the  word  can  be  justly 
used,  namely,  in  the  sense  of  one  who  helps  those  under 
his  instruction  to  secure  knowledge,  to  acquire  skiU, 
to  obtain  insight  and  to  gain  appreciation.  .  .  .  The 
conduct  of  the  recitation  will  be  changed,  much  to  its 
advantage.  .  .  .  Supervised  study  means  the  elimina- 
tion of  lesson-hearing,  so  often  the  bane  of  high  school 
teaching  to-day.  When  the  necessity  for  testing  the 
knowledge  of  the  pupil  and  for  drilling  him  during  the 
class  exercises  no  longer  exists,  then  the  teacher  will  be 
compelled  to  use  the  recitation  to  realize  the  main  pur- 
pose for  which  it  exists,  namely,  for  the  stimulation  of 
interests,  for  the  acquiring  of  insights  and  appreciation, 
and  for  the  development  of  reflective  thinking." 

Among  the  psychological  aspects  of  the  problem,  sev- 
eral which  carry  weight  might  weU  be  discussed  briefly. 
It  might  be  stated  that  the  ones  which  follow  are  gen- 
erally those  advanced  by  schoolmen  to  convince  boards 
of  education  that  a  supervised-study  programme  should 
be  adopted. 

(a)  Pupils  left  to  study  alone,  especially  at  home, 
lose  much  time  unnecessarily. 

Very  few  pupils  of  their  own  initiative  get  down  to 
work  at  home  without  some  loss  of  time,  and  after  they 
do  begin  they  permit  many  interruptions. 

(b)  Pupils  studying  at  home  often  acquire  bad  habits 
of  study. 


SUPERVISED  STUDY  207 

In  many  instances  it  is  expecting  too  much  of  the 
pupil  to  suppose  that  he  will  work  out  efficient  habits 
and  methods  of  work.  He  will  blunder  along,  and  out 
of  this  blundering  come  his  habits  of  work. 

(c)  The  teacher,  generally  speaking,  is  a  better  guide 
than  the  parent  or  fellow  pupil. 

In  the  Hammond,  Ind.,  high  school,  in  which  super- 
vised study  is  in  operation,  a  bright  little  fellow  in  an 
algebra  class  was  asked  how  he  liked  supervised  study. 
He  repHed  that  he  liked  it  because  it  saved  time  and  he 
could  secure  better  help  of  his  teachers  than  he  formerly 
got  elsewhere.  He  admitted  that  before  the  introduc- 
tion of  supervised  study  he  often  borrowed  the  work  of 
other  pupils  and  was  able  to  bluff  his  way  through  class. 

It  is  well-known  that  parents,  in  their  eagerness  to  help 
pupils,  will  practically  assimie  the  responsibility  of  pre- 
paring the  lessons  from  night  to  night. 

(d)  Supervised  study  makes  better  provision  for  in- 
dividual differences. 

Thorndike  and  others  have  demonstrated  that  within 
the  same  class  some  pupils  will  do  four,  five,  or  even 
seven  times  as  much  as  others.  With  a  properly  social- 
ized supervised-study  type  of  recitation  provision  can 
be  made  for  these  differences.  An  example  of  this 
is  to  be  found  in  the  experiment  conducted  in  the 
Springfield,  111.,  high  school  where  a  constructive  at- 
ten^t  has  been  made,  especially  in  Latin  and  mathe- 
matics, to  organize  the  work  to  provide  for  individual 
differences. 

(e)  Supervised  study  brings  the  teacher  into  closer 
personal  contact  with  the  pupils. 

It  gives  the  teacher  a  chance  to  see  how  pupils  work. 
It  reveals  their  weaknesses  and  strong  points,  their  likes 
and  dislikes,  their  methods  of  study  and  attitude.    The 


208  HIGH  SCHOOL  ADMINISTRATION 

teacher  becomes  acquainted  with  the  real  problems  of 
student  life. 

Teachers  working  under  a  supervised-study  plan  wiU 
often  change  their  lesson  plans  after  the  recitation  is 
under  way  because  they  can  see  that  they  are  not  meeting 
the  needs  of  the  pupils  that  day.  Likewise  teachers  will 
frequently  change  their  assignment  before  the  study 
period  is  over.  Under  the  older  plan  teachers  ordinarily 
would  not  feel  that  this  could  be  done  safely. 

The  teacher  is  not  compelled  to  continue  class  in- 
struction longer  than  necessary  to  meet  the  general 
needs  of  clearing  up  common  difficulties  and  of  testing 
pupils  on  their  organization  of  material.  Beyond  this 
point  instruction  should  become  largely  an  individual 
matter. 

(/")  The  period  following  the  recitation  is  the  oppor- 
tune time  to  prepare  the  next  assignment. 

The  pupils  and  teacher  are  in  the  mood  to  continue 
the  work.  The  problem  is  set  and  is  fresh.  This  en- 
ables the  pupil  to  utilize  immediately  the  class  experi- 
ences and  thus  bonds  of  association  are  more  likely  to 
be  definitely  established  between  the  class  work  and 
his  individual  effort.  This  results  in  greater  interest 
and  tends  to  keep  the  pupil  in  school. 

(g)  It  develops  initiative  and  independence  in  the 
pupils. 

Instead  of  robbing  the  pupil  of  initiative  and  inde- 
pendence, supervised  study  results  in  just  the  opposite. 
No  sensible  teacher  wiU  do  the  work  of  the  pupils  dur- 
ing the  study  period.  She  will  see  to  it  that  the  pupil 
uses  good  study  habits,  does  not  waste  time,  and  does 
not  become  discouraged  because  of  failure.  If  the  pupil 
asks  for  help  she  first  satisfies  herself  that  help  is  nec- 
essary, and  if  the  pupil  has  raised  the  point  in  good 


SUPERVISED  STUDY  209 

faith  he  puts  himself  in  the  attitude  of  a  learner  seek- 
ing knowledge.  The  teacher  will  do  exactly  what  the 
teacher  of  chemistry  does  in  the  laboratory  when  a 
pupil  cannot  determine  what  the  chemical  reaction  has 
been.  No  one  will  claim  that  the  introduction  of  lab- 
oratory work  in  science  has  weakened  the  pupils  and 
robbed  them  of  their  initiative  and  independence. 
Quite  the  contrary.  In  the  same  way  the  study  period 
in  mathematics  becomes  a  laboratory  for  the  setting  up 
and  the  solution  of  real  problems  which  arise  with  the 
pupil  at  a  time  when  he  can  secure  guidance,  as  against 
help  given  by  a  fellow  pupil  or  a  parent. 

{h)  Supervised  study  fulfils  the  best  laws  of  learning. 

Study  immediately  following  the  recitation,  in  which 
the  pupils  have  expressed  in  good  form  their  prepara- 
tion, and  have  evaluated  their  material,  enables  the 
pupil  to  make  immediate  use  of  the  recitation  material 
in  the  preparation  of  his  next  day's  assignment. 

It  enables  him  to  make  a  real  beginning  in  the  prep- 
aration of  the  work  assigned.  Any  part  incompleted 
must  be  taken  up  later,  and  this  will  provide  for  a 
second  recall  of  the  recitation  material  and  of  the  ground 
covered  in  the  preparation.  Before  the  recitation  the 
following  day  the  pupil  must  organize  his  material, 
but  this  is  not  done  as  if  he  were  trying  to  get  his 
entire  lesson  just  before  going  to  class.  It  is  a  final 
effort  to  complete  his  work  and  definitely  organize  it 
for  presentation.     It  is  distinctly  not  "cramming." 

These  distributed  periods  of  learning,  as  they  afford 
greater  time  for  bonds  of  association  to  be  built  up,  are  in 
strict  accord  with  the  laws  of  memory  and  forgetting. 

It  provides  study  at  a  time  when  the  pupil  is  in  the 
mood.  This,  together  with  the  fact  that  he  can  and 
does  make  progress  in  the  study  period,  makes  him  more 


210  HIGH  SCHOOL  ADMINISTRATION 

anxious  to  complete  his  work.  The  pupil  is  more  likely 
to  feel  that  his  preparation  is  identified  with  a  need  and 
thus  his  interest  is  awakened. 

The  pupil  will  make  the  connection  between  the 
teacher's  assignment  and  the  work  to  be  done.  It  will 
be  discovered  that  the  pupil  under  a  home-study  pro- 
gramme frequently  leaves  the  classroom  with  vague 
notions  as  to  the  methods  of  attacking  the  next  day's 
lesson,  or  just  how  to  apply  the  suggestions  which  the 
teacher  made.  Often  the  child  gets  the  wrong  notion 
and  the  next  day's  work  is  not  prepared.  Supervised 
study  is  justified,  if  it  does  nothing  more  than  guarantee 
to  each  pupil  a  clear  understanding  of  the  assignment 
and  the  suggestions  as  to  methods  and  applications  made 
by  the  teacher. 

As  indirectly  implied  in  the  preceding  paragraph, 
assignments  will  be  made  with  extreme  care.  The 
teacher,  who  has  been  careless  in  this  respect,  will  soon 
discover  that  much  depends  on  the  assignment.  The 
work  of  the  pupils  will  soon  demonstrate  any  weaknesses 
in  the  assignment.  Likewise,  better  teaching  must  be 
one  of  the  inevitable  results. 

In  the  third  place,  supervised  study  is  justified  by  the 
results  obtained  under  fair  and  competent  teachers. 
Experimental  education  supports  this  statement.  In 
the  Joliet,  111.,  high  school,  failures  were  reduced  by 
about  50  per  cent  in  algebra,  geometry,  Latin,  and  Ger- 
man in  four  years.  In  the  Bloomington,  Ind.,  high 
school,  Minnick  demonstrated  that  supervised  study  in 
geometry  was  better  than  home  study.  Failures  in  the 
Richmond,  Ind.,  high  school  were  materially  reduced 
for  the  school  as  a  whole,  within  a  two-year  period. 

The  type  of  organization  by  which  supervised  study  is 
most  commonly  administered  is  that  of  the  lengthened, 


SUPERVISED  STUDY  211 

divided  period.  The  length  of  the  period  varies  from 
about  sixty  minutes  as  a  minimum  to  ninety  minutes  as 
a  maximum.  Usually  the  first  part  of  the  period  is  given 
over  to  recitation  and  the  latter  part  to  study.  In  most 
schools  it  is  customary  to  assign  each  teacher  five 
classes,  including  teachers  of  the  so-called  laboratory 
subjects.  The  laboratory  subjects  are  given  no  more 
time  than  English,  for  example.  In  some  schools  the 
end  of  the  recitation  part  of  the  period  is  indicated  by 
the  ringing  of  a  bell.  This  one  thing  has  caused  as 
much  argument  as  all  other  phases  of  the  organization 
put  together.  Until  teachers  have  learned  to  minimize 
the  importance  of  the  old  testing  type  of  recitation  and 
give  it  its  true  evaluation,  there  is  every  reason  to  be- 
lieve that  teachers  must  be  required  to  keep  within 
certain  limits.  In  a  recent  survey  of  supervised  study, 
the  universal  complaint  of  high  school  pupils  was  that 
teachers  "ran  over"  their  part  of  the  period.  Teachers 
can  be  the  best  judges  of  how  long  they  should  continue 
the  group  recitation  of  the  question-answer  type  when 
they  have  decided  to  eliminate  much  of  it  from  the 
classroom.  It  is  clearly  a  misuse  of  the  plan  to  have 
the  teachers  teaching  in  the  old  way  for  fifty  of  the 
sixty  minutes. 

As  a  variation  of  the  usual  t)^e  of  organization,  the 
uniqueness  of  the  plan  in  operation  in  one  of  the  large 
Middle  West  high  schools  is  described  somewhat  in 
detail.  The  school-day  is  one  of  four  eighty-minute 
periods,  with  a  "shifting"  period  of  the  same  length 
which  replaces  one  of  these  periods  one  day  each  week, 
except  that  on  Monday  the  "shifting"  period  does  not 
have  a  place.  On  Monday  periods  i,  2,  3,  and  4  are 
run.  On  Tuesday  the  "shifting"  period  replaces  the 
first;  on  Wednesday,  the  second;  Thursday,  the  third; 


212 


HIGH   SCHOOL  ADMINISTRATION 


and  Friday,  the  fourtli.  As  classes  are  scheduled  for 
the  shifting  period  the  same  as  for  any  other,  this  plan 
enables  the  school  to  maintain  in  reality  a  five-period 
day  with  but  four  periods  any  one  day.  The  following 
diagram  will  make  clear  the  administration  of  this 
scheme. 


Monday. . . 
Tuesday . . . 
Wednesday 
Thursday. . 
Friday. ... 


Shifting 
I 
I 
I 


2 

2 

Shifting 

2 
2 


3 
3 

,3_ 
Shifting 

3 


4 
4 
4 
4 
Shifting 


A  full-time  subject,  such  as  algebra,  Latin,  English, 
meets  four  days  each  week.  If,  for  example,  a  pupil 
takes  English  the  first  period  he  attends  class  on  Mon- 
day, Wednesday,  Thursday,  and  Friday  only,  the  shift- 
ing period  replacing  the  first  period  on  Tuesday.  Under 
this  plan  it  is  clear  that  a  teacher  having  five  classes 
hears  but  twenty  recitations  per  week. 

The  periods  are  divided  into  recitation  and  study, 
with  approximately  forty  minutes  given  to  each.  Thus 
it  will  be  seen  that  the  pupil  carrying  four  subjects  has 
i6o  minutes  for  supervised  study  on  Monday  and  200 
minutes  each  of  the  other  days.  A  pupil  carrying  five 
studies  has  160  minutes  daily  for  supervised  study. 

Naturally,  objections  are  offered  to  supervised  study. 
It  is  not  a  panacea  for  all  the  ills  of  secondary-school 
organization.  Some  pupils  will  fail  to  pass  under  super- 
vised study,  and  it  is  not  as  desirable  for  excellent  pupils 
as  for  the  weaker  ones.  The  real  objections,  however, 
have  to  do  rather  with  the  external  phases  of  the  prob- 
lem than  with  the  problem  itself.  Practically  no  one  has 
ever   disagreed   with   the  proposition   that  the  school 


SUPERVISED   STUDY  213 

should  assume  the  responsibility  for  acquired  habits  of 
work. 

It  is  argued  that  the  organization  of  the  school  for 
purposes  of  definitely  directing  the  study  of  pupils  will 
tend  to  weaken  the  pupils  and  rob  them  of  their  initia- 
tive. They  will  come  to  depend  too  much  on  the 
teacher.  The  implication  is  that  the  teacher  will  do  the 
pupil's  work.  This  objection  is  easily  answered.  The 
teacher  will  not  do  the  pupil's  work  in  any  scheme  of 
directing  study.  She  will  use  every  means  at  her  com- 
mand to  make  it  possible  for  the  pupil  to  make  prog- 
ress in  his  work,  and  thus  become  interested  and  gain 
confidence  in  his  own  ability  to  do  the  tasks  before  him. 
Parents  and  fellow  pupils  are  poorer  guides  and  helpers 
than  the  teachers.     They  do  the  work  for  the  pupils. 

One  contributor  to  The  Ladies^  Home  Journal  for  Jan- 
uary, 1913,  in  discussing  the  arguments  for  supervised 
study  in  the  school  rather  than  home  study,  gave  an 
example  of  what  was  happening  under  the  title  of  "The 
Widow  Who  Was  Dead  Right." 

A  widow  came  to  the  superintendent  of  schools  with 
the  following  complaint: 

"I  have  four  little  girls  attending  your  schools.  I 
am  up  at  five  o'clock  in  the  morning  to  get  them  off  to 
school  and  to  get  myself  off  to  work.  It  is  six  o'clock  in 
the  evening  when  I  reach  home  again,  pretty  well  worn 
out,  and  after  we  have  had  dinner  and  have  tidied  up 
the  house  a  bit  it  is  eight  o'clock.  Then,  tired'  as  I  am, 
I  sit  down  and  teach  the  little  girls  the  lessons  your 
teachers  will  hear  them  say  over  on  the  following  day. 
Now,  if  it  is  all  the  same  to  you,  it  would  be  a  great  help 
and  favor  to  me  if  you  will  have  your  teachers  teach  the 
lessons  during  the  day,  and  then  all  I  would  have  to  do 
at  night  would  be  to  hear  them  say  them  over." 


214  HIGH  SCHOOL  ADMINISTRATION 

It  is  a  small  incentive  for  the  pupil  to  go  day  after  day 
to  class  without  having  made  satisfactory  progress.  In 
such  cases  the  pupils  must  put  in  extra  time  with  the 
teacher  or  fail.  A  little  direction  from  time  to  time  and 
an  observation  of  the  pupil  at  work  will  prevent  much 
discouragement.  Supervision  will  create  confidence,  and 
with  confidence  initiative  and  real  effort  will  follow. 

While  the  majority  of  parents  seem  to  favor  super- 
vised-study  programmes,  there  are  always  many  in  the 
community  who  object  to  the  children  having  no  assign- 
ments or  parts  of  assignments  to  do  at  home.  They  say 
that  it  is  much  more  difficult  to  keep  their  children  at 
home  and  satisfied.  This  objection  is  strong  enough  to 
warrant  the  attention  of  those  planning  the  introduc- 
tion of  supervised  study. 

This  point  raised  by  parents  has  its  counterpart  in 
an  objection  often  entered  by  the  faculty,  namely,  that 
pupils  do  not  feel  a  sense  of  responsibility  for  further 
preparation  after  the  close  of  the  study  period.  This 
fact,  for  it  is  such,  emphasizes  the  importance  of  pro- 
gressive requirements  in  regard  to  preparation.  After 
the  pupils  have  had  a  year  or  two  of  supervision,  surely 
some  home  work  should  be  required  to  supplement  that 
done  in  school  hours  with  the  teacher. 

Differences  in  ability  should  also  be  given  consider- 
able attention,  and  the  brighter  pupils  should  either  be 
held  for  more  work  or  work  of  a  higher  quality.  Un- 
less this  is  done,  a  valid  objection  can  be  registered 
against  supervised  study.  Supervised  study  should  not 
bring  the  work  of  the  bright  pupils  down  to  the  level  of 
the  average  pupils.  It  should  accentuate  differences. 
Under  proper  administrative  control  this  can  and  will  be 
done. 

It  is  argued  that  it  costs  more  to  operate  a  system  of 


SUPERVISED   STUDY  215 

directed  study  than  a  system  of  recitations  and  study 
halls.  Practically  speaking,  the  cost  is  no  greater.  In 
smaller  schools  it  probably  would  require  an  increase  in 
the  teaching  force.  In  schools  of  500  pupils  or  more  it 
will  not  increase  the  cost  of  instruction,  as  the  number 
of  extra  classes  which  can  be  taken  by  all  teachers  of 
former  double-period  studies  will  probably  offset  the  re- 
duction in  the  number  of  classes  assigned  to  teachers 
who  had  formerly  taught  single-period  studies.  Further- 
more, fewer  teachers  would  be  required  in  large  study 
haUs.  In  the  Kansas  City,  Kan.,  high  school  the  cost 
was  not  increased  to  any  appreciable  degree.  In  the 
Richmond,  Ind.,  high  school,  with  an  enrolment  of  750 
pupils,  there  was  no  increase,  whatever,  in  cost.  Even 
if  the  cost  is  greater,  this  cannot  be  advanced  as  a  vaUd 
objection.  If  the  direction  of  study  is  a  thing  of  value, 
if  it  is  a  new  function  of  the  school  to  teach  a  "tech- 
nic  of  study,"  the  cost  may  properly  be  greater. 

Offsetting  any  possible  increase  in  cost  of  instruction, 
the  reorganization  of  the  school  on  a  supervised  study 
basis  results  in  a  fuller  use  of  the  school  plant.  It  re- 
duces very  materially  the  number  of  pupils  having  va- 
cant periods,  and  thus  large  study  rooms  can  be  divided 
up  into  recitation  rooms.  More  classes  can  be  accom- 
modated daily  in  the  science,  manual-training,  and 
household-arts  rooms,  thus  cutting  down  the  large  per 
capita  equipment  and  laboratory  overhead  expense. 
Teachers  will  find  a  wider  use  of  library  facilities  not 
only  possible  but  desirable.  Whole  classes  can  be  taken 
to  the  Hbrary  for  work  under  the  direction  of  a  trained 
Hbrarian  and  the  class  teachers.  In  the  EngHsh  de- 
partm^ent  a  part  of  the  period  can  well  be  utilized  in 
organizing  and  administering  a  course  in  library  in- 
struction. 


216  HIGH  SCHOOL  ADMINISTRATION 

The  objection  most  commonly  urged  and  the  one 
that  strikes  at  the  very  heart  of  directed  study  is  that 
teachers  do  not  know  how  to  teach  pupils  how  to  study; 
that  the  directed  study  part  of  the  period  is  little  more 
than  wasted.  The  teachers,  it  is  urged,  are  not  quahfied 
to  undertake  this  work  successfully. 

If  the  supervision  of  study  is  a  worthy  part  of  the 
school's  work,  it  is  not  a  vaUd  objection  to  say  that 
teachers  are  unprepared  to  teach  pupils  how  to  study. 
It  is  the  duty  of  schools  of  education  to  give  particular 
attention  to  this  matter  in  the  preparation  of  teachers. 
High  school  faculties  should  bring  everything  to  bear  on 
the  solution  of  this  problem.  They  should  study  and 
plan  methods  by  which  the  largest  results  can  be 
achieved.  Twenty  years  ago  it  was  impossible  to  get 
adequately  trained  teachers  for  the  manual-training  and 
household-arts  branches  in  our  schools.  We  began  as 
best  we  could  to  organize  these  courses,  and  gradually 
raised  our  standards  for  teachers  until  to-day  we  have 
instructors  as  competently  trained  in  these  departments 
as  in  many  otliers.  The  same  thing  will  be  true  of  the 
training  and  ability  of  teachers  for  the  work  of  directing 
the  study  of  the  pupils. 

There  is  ample  room  for  constructive  work  along  this 
line  within  the  school  itself.  Few  high  school  prin- 
cipals have  made  constructive  attempts  to  work  out 
with  their  teachers  principles  governing  the  direction 
of  study.  Supervised  study  should  be  adopted  as  the 
result  of  study  and  dehberation  on  the  part  of  the 
faculty  rather  than  the  determination  of  the  executive 
head  to  reorganize  the  school.  Teachers  will  thus  feel 
some  responsibility  for  the  success  of  the  plan,  and  will 
study  ways  and  means  of  making  the  study  period  a 
vital  part  of  the  classroom  exercise. 


SUPERVISED   STUDY  217 

In  any  scheme  for  the  supervision  of  study,  attention 
must  be  given  to  the  form  and  methods  of  the  recitation 
with  a  view  of  emphasizing  the  social  phases  and  mini- 
mizing the  old  question-answer,  all-the-pupils-listen- 
while-Mary-explains  type,  but  even  more  important 
than  this  is  the  solution  of  the  problems  of  the  study 
period.  Physical  conditions  affecting  study,  individ- 
ualizing the  work  of  the  pupils,  wasteful  methods,  spe- 
cific application  of  the  materials  of  the  recitation,  diffi- 
culties common  to  the  entire  group,  working  out  with 
the  pupil  a  satisfactory  method  of  procedure  in  the 
preparation  of  the  lesson — ^these  are  problems  that 
should  engage  the  attention  of  the  teachers  and  admin- 
istrators. A  constructive  attempt  to  solve  them  will 
result  in  a  technic  of  study  that  will  permanently  ac- 
crue to  the  benefit  of  the  pupil.  In  this  programme 
the  teacher  will  assume  the  role  of  a  "director"  in  the 
recitation,  but  that  of  a  "teacher"  in  the  supervision  of 
study. 


SUPERVISION  OF  TEACHERS  AND  TEACHING 

Unfortunately,  in  the  discussion  of  the  many  problems 
of  supervising  the  teaching  staff  as  well  as  in  practice, 
a  clearly  defined  distinction  between  the  supervision  of 
teachers  and  of  teaching  has  not  been  made.  These 
two  phases  of  staff  supervision  should  be  treated  dis- 
tinctly as  separate  parts  of  the  same  general  problem. 
There  is  opportunity  to  do  a  particular  piece  of  super- 
visory work  in  each  of  these  fields,  and  it  is  unfortunate 
that  they  have  not  been  treated  separately  both  in 
theory  and  practice  with  the  view  of  developing  a  real 
technic  in  supervising  teachers  as  well  as  in  supervis- 
ing teaching. 

Supervision  at  present  deals  almost  entirely  with 
the  problems  of  teachers  in  their  relationships  outside 
the  classroom  and  in  their  disciplinary  problems  within 
the  classroom.  There  is  little  constructive  supervision 
of  classroom  teaching  problems  beyond  this  point.  Al- 
though the  greater  portion  of  the  work  of  supervision  is 
done  in  the  field  of  teacher  supervision,  insufficient 
attention  has  been  given  to  the  development  of  methods 
of  handling  the  problems  involved,  or  to  the  advisability 
of  considering  this  a  definite  part  of  the  supervisor's 
work.  On  the  other  hand,  in  supervision  of  teaching, 
where  relatively  little  work  is  actually  done  by  the  high 
school  principal  in  a  supervisory  way,  many  serious  at- 
tempts to  develop  methods  and  check  results  have  been 
made. 

The  first  business  of  the  teacher  is  to  teach,  and  we 
should  give  not  only  more  attention  to  supervision  of 

218 


TEACHERS  AND   TEACHING  219 

teaching  but  seek  for  means  by  which  the  one  charged 
with  the  duties  of  supervision  may  do  more  effective 
work.  On  the  other  hand,  when  teachers  are  brought 
together  in  one  large  institution  there  are  social  prob- 
lems, cross-connections,  and  relationships  that  call  for 
supervision  of  teachers.  In  the  one-teacher  school  the 
teacher's  problems  are  simple  enough,  but  the  school, 
as  Doctor  Charles  Hughes  Johnston  said,  is  no  longer 
an  assemblage  of  teaching  units.  It  is  an  institution 
with  an  institutional  consciousness.  It  is  quite  neces- 
sary that  teachers  work  together  in  harmony  and  that 
there  be  developed  among  them  an  esprit  de  corps.  It 
is  just  as  impossible  to  secure  the  best  results  in  the 
modem  secondary  school  where  teachers  are  not  work- 
ing in  harmony  as  it  is  in  the  city  when  everybody  is  at 
cross-purposes  with  the  city  officials. 

In  most  schools,  as  has  been  indicated,  this  phase  of 
supervision  is  handled  in  an  unorganized,  indefinite 
way.  Problems  are  met  when  they  arise.  Often  noth- 
ing ia  done  until  things  become  serious  and  teachers  are 
working  at  cross-purposes,  yet  teacher  co-operation  and 
team-work  are  mighty  factors  in  the  effectiveness  of  the 
teaching  activities  of  the  school.  Teacher  supervision 
has  a  direct  bearing  on  classroom  instruction,  and  should 
be  handled  in  a  definite,  constructive  way.  It  is  too 
vital  to  delay  longer  an  attempt  to  develop  a  construc- 
tive technic. 

Great  business  organizations  spend  much  time  and 
energy  in  keeping  up  the  morale  of  the  men  in  their 
employ.  They  even  engage  the  most  expensive  men  to 
manage  or  supervise  the  employees  in  order  that  a 
spirit  of  mutual  co-operation  may  exist  among  the  men 
themselves  and  between  the  men  and  the  organization. 
Certain  great  corporations  have  through  the  efforts  of 


220  HIGH  SCHOOL  ADMINISTRATION 

the  executive  officers  or  the  supervisory  expert  built  up 
an  enviable  shop  spirit  and  their  employees  thus  do  their 
best  work.  Even  prospective  employees  may  be  found 
on  waiting  lists  because  of  the  spirit  that  has  been  built 
up — quite  apart  from  the  matter  of  wages.  Business 
firms  have  thus  capitalized  the  results  to  be  derived 
from  the  definite,  constructive  supervision  of  the  work- 
ers employed.  They  know  that  it  pays,  and  the  better 
the  technic  the  greater  the  pay. 

The  efficiency  of  our  national  army  is  a  splendid  ex- 
ample of  this  kind  of  supervision.  We  may  leave  out 
of  this  discussion  the  necessity  of  individual  efficiency 
and  training.  These  factors  are  inherently  necessary, 
but  the  strength  of  an  army  also  depends  upon  co- 
operative efficiency  and  good-will.  The  people  of  the 
United  States  through  far-sighted  leadership  saw  at 
once  the  need  of  developing  among  the  men  a  spirit  of 
co-operation  and  good-will  through  the  administration 
of  certain  great  social  programmes  destined  to  make  the 
men  feel  deeply  the  community  of  effort  behind  them 
at  home  and  to  draw  them  together  in  bonds  of  mutual 
understanding.  Our  cantonments  quickly  had  their 
hostess  houses,  their  Y.  M.  C.  A.  huts,  and  their  Liberty 
theatres.  For  our  overseas  troops  millions  in  money 
were  spent  to  administer  to  their  common  welfare.  The 
result  was  the  greatest  fighting  force  in  the  world,  be- 
cause it  had  the  spirit  of  co-operation  and  the  morale. 

This  work  in  its  way  is  just  as  important  in  the 
present  comprehensive  secondary  school  as  in  business, 
or  even  in  the  national  army.  In  the  smaller  school  the 
problem  may  not  be  great,  but  in  the  larger  school, 
where  it  is  fundamentally  necessary  that  teachers  work 
co-operatively,  the  principal  or  heads  of  departments 
charged  with  supervisory  duties  must  use  extreme  care 


TEACHERS  AND  TEACHING  221 

and  tact  to  the  end  that  the  work  of  the  school  may  be 
done  with  militant  harmony. 

The  supervision  of  teachers  may  keep  down  to  a  mini- 
mum differences  among  teachers,  departmental  differ- 
ences, and  differences  between  the  executive  head  and 
the  staff.  This  is  far  from  saying  that  there  is  no  place 
in  the  system  for  honest  differences.  People  of  convic- 
tion should  not  be  required  to  surrender  their  principles 
of  conduct  and  thinking  so  long  as  they  are  honest  and 
professional  in  their  attitude. 

The  principal  of  experience  in  a  large  school  is  apt  to 
be  familiar  with  factions  in  the  faculty.  These  usually 
have  grown  out  of  issues  on  which  there  may  have  been 
justifiable  differences  of  opinion.  It  requires  great  tact 
to  deal  with  such  problems  and  build  up  a  co-operative 
spirit,  to  say  nothing  of  preventing  an  actual  open 
break.  A  principal  cannot  expect  to  maintain  loyalty 
of  effort  and  purpose  in  the  faculty  if  he  is  unable  to 
maintain  the  same  professional  attitude  toward  all 
members  of  the  staff  who  have  constructive  suggestions 
to  offer  for  the  welfare  of  the  school.  It  is  not  to  be 
assumed  that  all  teachers  are  equally  strong  or  meri- 
torious, but  merit  should  be  accorded  a  welcome  regard- 
less of  its  source. 

University  faculties  occasionally  furnish  glowing  ex- 
amples of  petty  jealousies,  petty  politics,  and  wire-pull- 
ing. In  discussing  the  internal  problems  of  a  certain 
university,  one  professor  said  that  a  coterie  of  fellow 
teachers  were  able  to  control  the  executive  head,  and 
that  they  often  let  it  be  known  that  requests  from  cer- 
tain members  of  the  faculty  would  not  be  honored  for 
action.  He  stated  that  no  one  dared  approach  the 
trustees  over  the  head  of  the  institution  for  fear  of 
breach  of  loyalty.    Thus  hemmed  in  without  recourse 


222  HIGH  SCHOOL  ADMINISTRATION 

and  with  no  one  heading  the  institution  with  the  cour- 
age to  give  every  one  a  fair  hearing,  incipient  intrigue 
and  rebellion  were  ever  present.  This  experience  has 
been  duplicated  in  some  high  schools. 

The  testimony  of  the  university  professor  points  to 
the  possible  solution  of  such  difficulties.  In  this  day 
we  talk  of  prevention  rather  than  cure.  Strong  medi- 
cine should  be  the  last  resort.  Happily  a  new  spirit  is 
springing  up  in  the  administration  of  both  universities 
and  high  schools.  It  finds  its  highest  expression  in  that 
organization  of  the  faculty  whereby  the  members  may 
actually  make  contributions  to  the  solution  of  the  in- 
stitutional problems  as  they  arise.  In  some  universi- 
ties real  efforts  are  being  made  to  write  constitutions 
which  will  remove  autocratic  methods  of  administration 
and  democratize  the  faculty.  In  the  secondary  field 
some  principals  are  organizing  their  faculties  into  stand- 
ing committees  which  are  urged  to  give  their  best 
thought  to  the  problems  formerly  held  sacred  by  the 
principal.  With  some  such  democratic  organization  of 
the  faculty  and  wdth  an  honest  purpose  behind  it,  the 
faculty  need  not  be  asked  for  co-operation  on  any  im- 
portant matter  of  general  concern.  They  have  some 
responsibility  and  a  voice  in  the  institutional  control  of 
the  school.  In  many  matters  under  this  arrangement 
the  faculty  can  exercise  considerable  freedom.  In  busi- 
ness organizations  esprit  de  corps  is  often  secured 
through  some  sort  of  bonus  system.  In  the  school 
participation  in  administration  will  serve  the  same  pur- 
pose. 

Participation  in  administration  has  of  late  been  given 
a  new  impetus.  Social  unrest  is  operating  in  the  pub- 
lic schools.  Teachers  in  some  instances  are  organizing 
and  uniting  or  affiliating  with  labor-unions.    They  are 


TEACHERS  AND  TEACHING  223 

calling  for  definite  means  of  securing  a  voice  in  school 
administration.  They  have  even  suggested  in  some  in- 
stances that  the  classroom  teachers  should  select  the 
superintendent  of  schools.  Indeed,  the  last  word  in 
school  administration  has  not  been  written.  Those 
charged  with  supervisory  duties  have  a  responsibility  in 
the  matter  of  directing  these  movements  into  the  right 
channels.  One  thing  seems  clear.  The  autocratic  meth- 
ods of  dealing  with  teachers  are  about  to  become  the 
relics  of  bygone  days.  The  new  day  of  co-operative  ef- 
fort will  call  for  a  higher  type  of  supervision  of  teachers 
than  we  have  ever  experienced  before. 

Two  distinct  movements  can  be  discerned  in  the  re- 
cent developments  in  school  administration.  One  ap- 
parently is  directed  against  the  present  type  of  admin- 
istration; the  other  is  seeking  for  means  by  which  the 
problems  of  school  administration  may  be  worked  out 
co-operatively.  One  is  more  or  less  mandatory;  the 
other  more  strictly  professional.  Both  call  for  careful 
consideration. 

If  teachers  feel  that  real  democracy  in  school  admin- 
istration can  be  attained  only  by  the  organization  of 
classroom  teachers  or  by  affiliating  with  some  class  or 
faction  in  our  society,  the  situation  is  serious  indeed. 
This  feeling  must  be  reckoned  with.  It  must  be  guided. 
This  movement,  if  it  may  be  called  such,  should  be 
directed  into  the  channel  of  co-operative  effort.  Our 
house  must  not  be  divided.  Class  or  group  organiza- 
tions of  teachers  must  be  justified  or  condemned  in  the 
final  analysis  upon  their  work.  It  is  to  be  hoped  that 
teachers  and  administrators  alike  will  work  for  the 
development  of  that  high  type  of  co-operation  which 
springs  from  mutual  confidence  and  community  effort. 

The  N.  E.  A.  Commission  on  the  Emergency  in  Edu- 


224  HIGH  SCHOOL  ADMINISTRATION 

cation  has  rendered  the  profession  a  great  service  in 
directing  recent  tendencies  in  school  administration. 
This  commission  advocated  the  formation  of  teachers' 
councils  on  a  comprehensive  basis  and  the  suggestion 
has  met  with  general  favor.  The  teachers'  council  is 
designed  to  bring  together  the  entire  teaching  force  for 
the  solution  of  school  problems  and  policies.  It  wiU 
enable  various  teacher  organizations  within  any  given 
system  to  work  together  and  thus  insure  real  democracy 
in  school  administration. 

"No  educational  suggestion,"  says  the  December, 
1919,  N.  E.  A.  Bulletin,  "has  ever  been  taken  up  more 
quickly  and  more  generally  throughout  the  entire  coun- 
try than  that  of  the  N.  E.  A.  Commission  on  the  Emer- 
gency in  Education  concerning  the  organization  of 
teachers'  councils.  Two  items  in  the  suggestion  met 
with  instant  approval  everywhere,  that  of  an  organiza- 
tion in  which  teacher,  supervisor,  and  principal  could 
work  together,  and  that  of  requiring  by  law  that  all 
questions  of  school  policy  be  submitted  to  the  teachers' 
council  for  consideration  before  being  made  effective  by 
the  board  of  education. 

"Teachers,  superintendents,  and  school  officers  were 
alike  ready  for  this  recommendation,  and  the  commis- 
sion was  the  one  body  in  a  position  to  say  the  word. 
Hundreds  of  teachers'  councils  have  been  organized 
during  the  last  four  weeks.  A  teacher  council  wave  is 
literally  sweeping  over  the  country.  Councils  are  being 
organized  rapidly  and  boards  of  education  are  preparing 
rules  in  harmony  with  the  general  plan.  It  is  based  on 
the  principle  of  democracy  in  school  administration. 
This  is  one  of  the  most  important  steps  in  the  educa- 
tional progress  of  the  year.  It  prepares  for  team-work 
in  every  school  system.     It  does  not  do  away  with 


TEACHERS  AND  TEACHING  225 

otlier  organizations  among  teachers,  but  it  provides  a 
means  for  all  getting  together  on  the  best  things  thought 
out  in  special  groups  and  elsewhere.  Without  this  all- 
inclusive  group  there  is  ever  the  danger  of  a  house 
divided  against  itself  instead  of  a  house  whose  parts 
are  bound  solidly  together.  With  all  forces  working  to- 
gether, great  things  will  be  accomplished  during  the 
period  of  reconstruction  in  education." 

Aside  from  the  maintenance  of  an  esprit  de  corps 
and  building  up  a  spirit  of  co-operation  in  school  ad- 
ministration the  renewed  emphasis  upon  such  matters 
as  the  social  organization  of  the  school,  professional 
growth,  and  a  professional  attitude  toward  administra- 
tive changes  makes  the  constructive  supervision  of 
teachers  an  essential  matter. 

With  the  clearer  conception  of  the  school  as  a  social 
institution  wherein  should  be  utilized  the  social  activi- 
ties of  boys  and  girls  as  a  means  of  inculcating  those 
social,  civic,  and  moral  virtues  essential  to  good  citizen- 
ship, as  a  means  of  training  in  leadership,  and,  finally,  as 
a  means  of  democratizing  the  school,  the  organization 
and  control  of  extra-classroom  activities  have  become 
not  only  expedient  but  positively  necessary.  In  our 
better  schools  the  teachers  who  have  not  assumed  some 
responsibility  for  the  guidance  of  social  activities  are 
not  fulfilling  their  full  duty.  The  day  has  passed  when 
teachers  can  count  the  day's  work  done  when  they  have 
heard  their  last  class. 

Faculties  often  must  be  converted  to  this  point  of 
view  and  frequently  opposition  arises.  To  carry  on  a 
constructive  social  programme  the  principal  must  be 
able  to  give  and  take  in  the  assignment  of  duties  to 
teachers.  At  first  much  of  the  work  may  have  to  be 
done  through  voluntary  workers,  and  the  head  of  the 


226  HIGH  SCHOOL  ADMINISTRATION 

school  need  not  be  surprised  if  some  teachers,  individ- 
ualistic in  their  training  and  "teaching"  experience, 
actually  oppose  social  activities.  Such  discouragements 
should  not  be  taken  too  seriously.  In  one  high  school 
the  work  has  progressed  so  far  that  a  committee  of  the 
faculty  now  devotes  nearly  all  of  its  time  to  supervising 
the  faculty  and  pupils  in  their  social  activities.  The 
teachers  in  this  school  expect,  as  a  part  of  their  work, 
to  sponsor  some  club  or  society,  and  the  faculty  com- 
mittee has  had  to  formulate  definite  rules  of  procedure 
in  the  matter  of  the  formation  of  new  clubs  and  in  the 
control  of  social  activities. 

If  the  school  authorities  have  a  fraternity  problem, 
or  other  equally  grave  social  issue  to  face,  it  is  very 
essential  that  teachers  have  the  social  point  of  view. 
There  are  no  more  certain  means  to  rid  the  school  of 
secret  societies  than  to  supplant  them  with  justifiable 
social  activities  which  make  just  as  strong  an  appeal  to 
the  adolescent  boy  or  girl  as  loyalty  to  any  particular 
clique.  Supervision  of  teachers  is  a  very  important  fac- 
tor in  the  successful  prosecution  of  an  extensive  social 
programme. 

The  supervision  of  teachers  outside  of  the  classroom 
and  without  direct  reference  to  the  actual  technic  used 
in  class  instruction  is  the  source  of  much  of  the  inspira- 
tion leading  to  professional  reading  and  study.  It 
is  largely  through  the  work  of  teachers'  meetings,  the 
individual  and  casual  conferences  with  teachers,  that 
they  are  awakened  to  the  need  of  further  study  and 
preparation.  Sometimes  this  inspiration  grows  out  of 
actual  classroom  supervision,  but  more  often  it  comes 
from  the  other  sources  mentioned.  No  doubt  more  in- 
spiration should  come  from  constructive  classroom  su- 
pervision, but  until  more  of  this  work  is  done,  and  even 


TEACHERS  AND  TEACHING  227 

then,  much  of  it  will  come  from  supervision  of  teachers. 
Principals,  then,  may  well  regard  their  personal  contact 
with  teachers  outside  of  class  as  an  opportunity  to  in- 
spire them  to  further  study  and  reading. 

A  professional  attitude,  even  an  experimental  one, 
toward  such  innovations  as  supervised  study  is  secured 
largely  through  supervision  of  teachers  rather  than 
teaching.  Paving  the  way  is  done  through  committee 
work,  through  consultation  with  individuals,  and  through 
faculty  meetings.  A  system  of  weighted  credits  can  be 
introduced  without  waiting  for  the  right  attitude  on 
the  part  of  a  majority  of  the  teachers,  but  the  principal 
has  enough  responsibility  in  any  such  matter  without 
having  to  carry  the  opposition  of  a  large  number  on  the 
staff. 

The  preceding  points  thus  indicate  the  reasons  for  and 
the  possibilities  of  that  phase  of  staff  supervision  which 
touches  the  extra-classroom  relationships  and  activities 
of  the  teachers.  They  indicate  the  need  not  only  of 
recognizing  a  distinction  between  the  work  of  supervis- 
ing teachers  and  that  of  teaching  but  also  of  giving  the 
former  more  constructive  attention.  It  is  quite  clear 
that  teacher  supervision  is  not  independent  of  instruc- 
tional supervision.  There  is  here,  however,  a  field  of 
administrative  activity  that  has  not  been  sufficiently 
stressed  in  the  past.  It  will  pay  to  set  about  develop- 
ing a  kind  of  procedure  that  gives  the  supervisor  a  real 
chance  to  demonstrate  qualities  of  leadership  in  super- 
vision.    There  is  ample  opportunity. 

The  point  of  view  stressed  here  is  the  need  of  atten- 
tion to  this  work  as  such.  The  supervisor  should  take 
the  lead  in  matters  of  this  kind,  and  direct  the  faculty 
rather  than  be  directed  by  the  course  of  events  from  day 
to  day.    The  work  that  has  been  done  has  been  too 


228  HIGH  SCHOOL  ADMINISTRATION 

haphazard,  too  much  like  guesswork,  too  much  given  to 
keeping  the  machinery  going.  It  seems  evident  that 
too  much  depends  upon  the  co-operation,  good-will,  and 
professional  interests  of  teachers  to  leave  this  work  to 
be  handled  carelessly. 

While  supervision  of  teachers  is  important,  as  has 
been  pointed  out,  it  is  not  more  important  than  super- 
vision of  classroom  teaching.  The  need  of  constructive 
supervision  in  classroom  teaching  is  perhaps  greater  in 
the  secondary  school  than  in  any  other  unit  in  our  pub- 
lic-school system.  Until  quite  recently  the  training  of 
secondary-school  teachers  did  not  include  practice  in 
the  technic  of  classroom  instruction.  Few  schools  of 
education  have  as  yet  adequately  provided  for  actual 
training  in  technic  based  upon  the  theory  of  teaching 
and  other  courses.  What  has  been  done  is  not  yet  as 
thorough  nor  as  extensive  as  that  provided  for  elemen- 
tary teachers.  The  training  of  inexperienced  teachers 
in  the  secondary  schools  is  yet  largely  in  the  hands  of 
the  secondary-school  head  and  his  assistants. 

In  schools  up  to  thirty  or  thirty-five  teachers  the 
principal  can  be  held  directly  responsible  for  the  super- 
vision of  teaching.  In  a  school  of  thirty-five  teachers 
he  should  be  given  one  assistant  principal  and  two  full- 
time  clerks.  As  the  mmiber  of  teachers  increases  he 
should  be  supplied  with  more  clerical  help,  and  possibly 
he  should  have  a  second  assistant  principal  in  order 
that  he  may  devote  as  much  time  as  possble  to  the 
larger  problems  of  supervision.  In  a  school  of  seventy- 
five  teachers  there  should  be  at  least  four  office  clerks 
and  two  assistant  principals  or  advisers,  one  each  for  the 
boys  and  girls.  The  assistants  should  give  practically 
all  of  their  time  to  administrative  work.  Supervision 
of  teaching  should  reniaui  the  duty  of  the  principal  as 


TEACHERS  AND  TEACHING  229 

long  as  he  can  do  the  work  satisfactorily.  In  the  larger 
schools  some  of  this  work  may  be  delegated  to  the  heads 
of  departments,  who  should  have  part-time  teaching 
schedules.  If  heads  of  departments  do  supervisory 
work,  they  should  have  the  same  general  point  of  view 
as  the  principal.  Even  in  the  largest  school  the  princi- 
pal should  look  upon  real  supervision  as  one  of  his  main 
duties. 

The  reason  for  so  little  supervision  is  threefold.  In 
the  first  place,  the  principal  is  usually  so  tied  down  with 
the  petty  details  of  his  office  that  he  cannot  find  time 
to  talk  individually  ■wdth  his  teachers,  to  say  nothing  of 
spending  on  the  average  two  hours  a  day  in  the  class- 
rooms. In  the  second  place,  the  superintendent  often 
assumes  the  responsibility  for  selecting  teachers,  and 
hence  the  principal  does  not  feel  that  he  must  supervise 
the  teaching.  Third,  and  most  important,  the  princi- 
pal in  many  cases  is  not  qualified  to  do  the  work. 

To  be  a  successful  supervisor  of  teaching  the  princi- 
pal, himself,  should  be  a  masterful  teacher  in  at  least 
one  line  of  work,  and  be  thoroughly  familiar  with  the 
educational  literature  in  that  line.  He  will  find  it  help- 
ful to  illustrate  by  teaching  a  class  the  point  or  points 
he  wishes  to  emphasize  with  the  teachers.  Aside  from 
courses  in  the  theory  and  practice  of  teaching,  and  prob- 
lems of  method,  the  supervisor  should  at  least  have 
pursued  thorough  courses  in  the  history  of  education, 
pu:e,  experimental,  and  applied  psychology,  including 
child  study,  and  philosophy  of  education.  As  an  ad- 
ministrator he  should,  of  course,  have  pursued  various 
courses  in  the  organization  and  administration  of  school 
systems.  Aside  from  his  educational  preparation,  the 
principal  ought  to  be  interested  in  the  technic  of  teach- 
ing and  be  an  active  student  of  the  problems  of  method. 


230  HIGH  SCHOOL  ADMINISTRATION 

He  will  be  more  efficient  if  he  is  also  a  student  of 
human  nature,  sympathetic  and  level-headed. 

With  this  educational  equipment  and  these  personal 
qualifications,  the  principal  may  well  keep  before  him  at 
least  three  important  factors  essential  in  constructive 
supervision.  First,  in  co-operation  with  the  teachers  a 
philosophy  of  education  or  faith  upon  which  the  "fash- 
ion" of  the  classroom  instruction  in  the  school  will  de- 
pend should  be  developed.  The  problems  of  teaching 
should  be  attacked  co-operatively.  The  principal  or 
supervisor  will  not  wish  to  force  his  point  of  view  upon 
the  teachers.  Teachers  cannot  be  expected  to  change 
their  methods  or  view-point  with  every  change  in  prin- 
cipalship.  These  problems  should  be  attacked  in  a 
spirit  of  mutual  understanding  and  helpfulness,  and  this 
is  the  point  of  view  held  throughout  this  discussion. 
'Second,  after  the  faculty's  philosophy  has  been  de- 
veloped, the  supervisor  must  have  a  pretty  clear  no- 
tion of  his  problem  or  problems  in  working  with  the  in- 
dividual teachers.  Third,  supervision  should  include 
personal,  private  conferences  with  the  teachers. 

The  development  of  a  creed  or  philosophy  in  co- 
operation with  the  faculty  is  important.  Without  some 
sort  of  creed  an  atmosphere  favorable  to  socializing  the 
recitation,  for  example,  cannot  be  generally  created. 
Without  an  accepted  philosophy  the  principal  cannot 
inspire  confidence  in  the  teachers  to  try  in  reality  the 
project  method  in  teaching.  He  cannot  reduce  his 
supervision  to  basic  principles  of  conduct  in  the  class- 
room. He  becomes  a  "tool"  in  the  hands  of  that 
teacher  of  long  experience  who  has  worked  under  many 
so-called  supervisors  without  criticism — the  teacher  who 
knows  she  is  right  and  defies  suggestions. 

The  point  of  view  arrived  at  in  co-operation  with  the 


TEACHERS  AND  TEACHING  231 

faculty  should  be  the  working  basis  in  supervision.  Its 
application  in  the  classroom,  however,  becomes  an  in- 
dividual matter  between  the  principal  and  the  individual 
members  of  the  faculty,  but  even  here  the  supervisor 
should  be  true  to  the  principles  agreed  upon  generally 
by  the  faculty.  Only  through  such  a  spirit  of  co-opera- 
tion can  unity  of  teaching  effort  be  maintained. 

The  purposes  to  be  served  by  supervision  should  be 
rather  definitely  determined  before  the  work  is  under- 
taken. This  will  vary  with  the  school,  as  things  which 
may  be  serious  problems  in  one  school  may  be  very 
simple  in  another,  if,  indeed,  they  are  problems  at  all. 
By  all  means  the  principal  should  make  a  general  sur- 
vey of  his  teaching  staff,  and  a  study  of  the  individual 
teachers.  In  a  general  survey  the  point  of  view  of  the 
teachers  can  be  learned,  while  the  study  of  the  individual 
teachers  will  enable  the  principal  to  locate  the  imme- 
diate points  of  attack.  In  some  schools  it  will  be  dis- 
covered that  the  teachers  have  the  social  point  of  view 
and  the  big  task  is  to  bring  about  a  refinement  of  tech- 
nic  to  make  the  work  effective.  In  others  just  the  op- 
posite condition  may  be  found.  The  number  of  new 
teachers  in  the  system,  especially  in  this  period  of  war- 
time reconstruction,  is  a  very  important  point.  The 
principal  finds  he  has  a  big  job  ahead  to  bring  them  into 
line  with  the  general  attitude  of  the  more  experienced 
and  better  teachers.  If  he  does  not  supervise  these  new 
teachers  he  may  soon  find  the  teaching  attitude  of  the 
whole  faculty  changed. 

Three  very  general  results  that  may  be  secured 
through  supervision  may  be  mentioned.  These  do  not 
exhaust  the  list  by  any  means,  but  they  will  serve  the 
purpose  of  showing  the  importance  of  setting  up  a  pro- 
gramme of  things  to  be  achieved. 


232  HIGH  SCHOOL  ADMINISTRATION 

Supervision  should  result,  first  of  all,  in  an  open- 
minded  attitude  toward  methods  of  instruction.  With- 
out this  attitude  the  school  will  rarely  be  able  to  make 
much  progress  in  trying  out  new  methods  or  conducting 
experiments  on  a  large  scale. 

Supervision  should  result  in  prevention  of  failure. 
This  implies  an  understanding  of  the  reasons  for  failure 
and  the  ability  to  give  assistance  of  the  right  kind  at 
the  proper  time.  Teachers  fail  because  of  (a)  lack  of 
interest  in  the  work;  (b)  lack  of  confidence;  (c)  lack  of 
judgment  and  sense  of  relative  values;  (d)  lack  of  co- 
operation with  other  teachers  and  the  authorities;  (e) 
poor  preparation  and  lack  of  vision;  (/)  inability  to 
manage  pupils ;  (g)  unfortunate  personality ;  and  (h)  lack 
of  technic  in  actual  teaching.  Others  might  be  men- 
tioned, but  these  are  generally  the  reasons  underlying 
any  recommendation  for  release.  Supervision  may  be 
of  assistance,  particularly  in  a,  b,  f,  and  h.  It  may  be 
helpful  in  c,  d,  and  e.  While  the  principal  should  have 
satisfied  himself  on  all  these  points  in  engaging  the 
teacher,  points  e  and  g  especially  should  have  definitely 
settled  the  teacher's  chances  of  employment.  Failure 
of  a  teacher  once  on  the  staff  should  be  regarded  seri- 
ously by  the  principal.  On  the  other  hand,  supervision 
should  result  in  locating  the  unworthy  teachers  and 
gradually  eliminating  them  from  the  system. 

Supervision  should  result  in  the  correction  of  defi- 
ciencies in  experienced  teachers  who  are  not  beyond 
hope  and  in  the  improvement  of  already  efficient  in- 
structors. It  should  result  in  an  improvement  on  the 
part  of  such  teachers  in  assignments,  in  preparation,  in 
interest  in  the  work  and  the  pupils,  and  in  the  tech- 
nic of  method. 

The  personal  interview  with  the  teacher  is  one  of  the 


TEACHERS  AND  TEACHING  233 

most  important  factors  in  supervision,  but  it  is  fraught 
with  grave  dangers  as  well  as  great  possibilities.  The 
personal  interview  may  easily  prove  disastrous  for  the 
teacher  and,  if  continued  improperly,  also  for  the  prin- 
cipal. Some  administrators,  effective  in  teacher-train- 
ing, have  had  great  results  attend  their  personal  inter- 
views. The  interview  should  be  casual,  not  forced,  and 
should  follow  reasonably  soon  after  the  visit  with  the 
teacher.  If  a  teacher  is  interviewed  for  the  purpose  of 
increasing  her  usefulness,  that  fact  means  that  she  has 
done  some  things  commendably  well.  Starting  with  the 
good  points,  it  may  be  pointed  out  how  her  effectiveness 
can  be  increased.  The  supervisor  must  shun  all  ap- 
pearances of  littleness  in  his  suggestions  and  be  definite 
in  his  statements.  He  must  base  his  remarks  on  facts 
and  not  opinion.  If  the  criticism  is  to  be  largely  ad- 
verse, it  will  be  well  for  him  to  wait  long  and  patiently 
until  facts  in  plenty  support  his  contentions.  By  all 
means  teachers  should  be  called  in  for  inter\dews  for  the 
purpose  of  commending  them  for  the  excellent  things 
they  have  done,  but  they  should  be  told  explicitly  the 
reasons  for  the  commendatory  statements.  Such  inter- 
views wiU  inspire  confidence,  especially  on  the  part  of 
those  who  have  taught  successfully  for  a  number  of 
years. 

It  is  in  the  personal  interview  that  the  supervisor 
especially  feels  the  need  of  definite  data  upon  which  to 
base  his  statements.  Generalities  merely  create  differ- 
ences of  opinion,  and  under  such  circumstances  the 
teacher  is  moved  to  defend  herself  even  when  she  knows 
there  is  justification  for  criticism. 

To  meet  this  supreme  test  in  supervision  the  use  of 
standard  tests,  experimental  studies,  and  schemes  for 
rating  teachers  are  valuable.     It  is  possible  through  ex- 


234  HIGH  SCHOOL  ADMINISTRATION 

periment  and  the  use  of  standard  tests  to  measure  the 
results  of  teaching  in  sufficiently  tangible  form  to  serve 
as  a  basis  for  definite  discussion  on  the  part  of  both  the 
teacher  and  supervisor.  Some  available  tests  and  sug- 
gestions in  regard  to  experimental  study  are  mentioned 
in  another  chapter.  The  supervisor  should  avail  him- 
self of  every  opportunity  to  supplant  mere  generalities 
in  discussing  teacher  problems  with  specific  facts. 

The  weakness  of  most  rating  schemes  lies  in  the  fact 
that  they  are  too  elaborate,  and  call  largely  for  opinion 
in  estimating  the  teacher's  worth.  Some  schemes  are 
so  elaborate  that  they  are  absolutely  impractical  in  the 
hands  of  the  supervisor.  Much  of  the  information 
called  for  in  such  rating  plans  is  not  necessary  either  for 
a  better  understanding  of  the  teacher's  work  or  for  an 
ultimate  increase  in  her  efficiency.  Why  all  the  ques- 
tions about  personal  equipment,  preparation,  neatness, 
and  the  million  little  details  about  the  recitation?  It 
would  require  one  hundred  visits  to  rate  a  teacher  accu- 
rately, and  when  the  sheets  were  filled  out  the  inter- 
pretation of  the  infinitesimally  piecemeal  result  would, 
indeed,  require  the  services  of  an  artist.  Matters  of 
preparation,  experience,  success  in  other  schools,  per- 
sonal equipment,  community  interest,  and  the  like  are 
covered  at  the  time  the  teacher  files  her  application 
and  is  employed.  When  these  matters  have  once  been 
passed  upon  and  recorded,  why  bother  the  supervisor 
longer  with  them  ? 

A  rating  scheme  to  be  usable  and  effective  must  be 
simple  and  designed  to  check  the  teacher  on  real  points 
vital  to  the  technic  of  method.  In  any  scheme  provi- 
sion on  the  card  or  sheet  should  be  made  for  specific 
statements  of  the  reasons  for  adverse  criticism  or  special 


TEACHERS   AND   TEACHING  235 

commendation.  These  statements  should  be  entered 
immediately  after  the  visit. 

The  points  covered  in  a  rating  scheme  should  include 
such  general  topics  as  (a)  the  assignment,  (b)  the  pres- 
entation of  materials,  (c)  relative  amount  of  teacher  vs. 
pupil  activity,  (d)  kind  and  degree  of  pupil  participa- 
tion, (e)  application  of  classroom  materials,  (/)  physical 
conditions,  and  (g)  peculiarities,  strong  points  and 
weaknesses.  Under  these  general  topics  there  should  be 
no  more  details  than  absolutely  necessary  to  bring  out 
the  facts.  Peculiarities,  strong  points  and  weaknesses 
rather  should  be  written  up  without  trying  to  formulate 
a  set  of  tentative  questions  designed  to  cover  all  pin- 
point aspects  and  phases  of  the  teacher's  work.  Of 
course,  in  commenting  upon  such  points  statements 
ought  to  be  specific.  Each  teacher  should  be  visited 
sufficiently  to  enable  the  supervisor  to  form  a  just  con- 
clusion on  each  point  in  the  rating  card  or  sheet. 

Given  these  general  topics,  what  fundamental  points 
should  be  looked  for  under  each  topic?  The  following 
points  are  suggestive: 

(a)  The  assignment.  Was  the  assignment  identified  with  the 
experiences  or  needs  of  the  pupils?  (Project  method  in 
teaching.)  Did  the  teacher  anticipate  difficulties  and 
suggest  means  and  materials  of  assistance  in  completing 
it  ?    Was  the  assignment  worthy  ? 

(6)  The  presentation  of  materials.  Was  the  material  treated  logi- 
cally or  psychologically  ? 

(c)  Relative  amoicnt  of  teacher  vs.  pupil  activity.  Without  the 
use  of  the  stop-watch,  relatively  how  much  of  the  class 
period  is  usually  consumed  by  the  teacher?  How  much 
by  the  pupils  ? 

(J)  Kind  and  degree  of  pupil  participation.  Was  the  participa- 
tion active  or  passive?     Did  it  grow  out  of  real  group 


236  HIGH  SCHOOL  ADMINISTRATION 

effort  to  solve  the  problems  before  the  class?  Did  the 
pupils  really  solve  problems  before  the  teacher  gave  the 
information?  How  generally  did  the  pupils  enter  into 
the  discussion?  Did  the  teacher  direct  the  situation  or 
domineer  it  ? 

(e)  Application  of  classroom  materials.  Were  specific  applica- 
tions made  or  did  the  work  stop  with  generalizations? 
Was  there  a  real  effort  to  show  the  possible  connections 
between  the  work  and  the  pupil's  every-day  life,  or  did 
the  theory  of  faculty  psychology  prevail? 

(/)  Physical  conditions.     A  general  survey  of  the  room. 

(g)  Peculiarities,  strong  points,  and  weaknesses.  Such  general 
points  as  attitude  of  pupils  (discipline),  type  of  questions 
used,  mannerisms,  waste  of  time,  and  others  should  be 
noted. 

Some  such  scheme  should  also  be  developed  for  rating 
the  work  of  teachers  in  supervised  study,  since  many 
schools  are  now  operating  on  that  basis.  Not  long  ago 
a  superintendent  remarked  that  it  was  not  easy  to  visit 
teachers  in  a  school  operating  a  supervised-study  plan, 
since  about  half  of  each  day  was  lost  so  far  as  super- 
vision was  concerned.  There  is  or  should  be  just  as 
much  technic  in  handling  the  study  period  as  the 
recitation.  Few  supervisors  have  as  yet  attempted  to 
develop  a  technic  of  study  with  their  teachers. 

In  this  early  stage  of  supervised  study  it  is  difficult 
to  state  just  what  should  be  looked  for  in  supervising 
the  study  period.  The  topics  stated  below  might  well 
be  included  in  a  rating  sheet  or  card: 

(a)  Provisions  for  study.     Are  study  materials  available?     Is 

the  equipment  adequate  ?  Are  the  physical  conditions  of 
the  room  satisfactory?  Do  the  pupils  have  good  seats 
and  the  proper  lighting  ? 

(b)  General  atmosphere  of  room.     Is  there  an  atmosphere  of 

study?     Are  the  pupils  moving  about  the  room  without 


TEACHERS  AND  TEACHING       237 

interfering  with  others?  Is  the  laboratory  atmosphere 
maintained  ? 

(c)  Pupil  activity.  Are  the  pupils  gathering  material,  reading, 
observing,  experimenting,  and  maintaining  their  pur- 
poses until  results  are  secured?  Are  the  pupils  working 
independently  or  are  they  depending  too  much  upon  the 
teacher  ? 

{d)  Teacher  activity. 

1.  General.     Is  the  teacher  actively  or  passively  in  touch 

with  the  pupils?  Is  she  interested  in  the  study 
period  as  a  means  of  developing  habits  of  study  ?  Is 
she  experimenting  to  determine  the  best  methods  of 
study  in  her  subjects? 

2.  Pupil  co-operation.     Is  the  teacher  assisting  the  pupils 

in  learning  the  art  of  co-operatively  attacking  their 
problems  ? 

3.  Individual  differences.     Has  the  teacher  taken  the  ability 

of  the  pupils  as  the  basis  of  differentiation  in  the 
amount  and  kind  of  work  done?  Does  she  make  a 
flexible  assignment? 

4.  Directing  study  habits.     Is  the  teacher  seriously  attempt- 

ing to  direct  the  individual  pupils  in  their  methods 
of  attack  upon  the  assignment  ?  Is  she  really  making 
an  effort  to  modify  the  pupils'  study  habits  in  her  sub- 
ject ? 

In  rating  teachers  there  should  be  perfect  frankness 
between  them  and  supervisor.  They  should  know  ex- 
actly what  the  supervisor  is  looking  for  when  he  visits 
them,  and  they  should  hold  copies  of  the  rating  sheet. 
They  should  also  see  the  ratings  given  them.  Only 
with  such  frankness  between  supervisor  and  supervised 
can  one  hope  for  progress  in  teaching  efficiency. 

Supervision  of  teachers  and  teaching  is  one  of  the 
principal's  most  potential  responsibilities.  Through 
constructive  work  in  this  field  he  can  determine  the 
spirit  of  the  faculty  both  within  and  without  the  class- 
room.    The  principal  who  neglects  either  of  these  two 


238  HIGH  SCHOOL  ADMINISTRATION 

general  phases  of  supervision  is  not  fulfilling  his  obliga- 
tion directly  to  the  teachers  and  pupils  under  his  charge 
and  indirectly  to  the  community.  Teachers,  pupils, 
and  patrons  are  entitled  to  the  highest  possible  efficiency 
in  our  present  secondary  schools. 


INTERNAL  ORGANIZATION  AND 
GOVERNMENT 

The  administration  of  the  American  secondary  school 
is  traditionally  autocratic.  That  man  who  by  sheer 
force  of  personaUty  has  been  able  to  dominate  the  en- 
tire situation  in  a  school,  to  discipline  imruly  boys,  to 
impose  order  and  industry  upon  the  pupils  and  faculty 
alike,  has  risen  to  the  place  of  greatest  responsibility, 
and  has  been  proclaimed  a  successful  head  master,  or 
principal.  Only  within  the  last  two  or  three  decades 
has  a  new  conception  of  discipline  come  into  existence, 
while  even  to-day  the  old  conception  characterizes  the 
administration  of  a  majority  of  our  high  schools. 

During  the  last  three  decades  pioneers  have  been 
trying  to  conceive  of  the  discipline  and  the  government 
of  the  school  as  an  educational  opportunity  rather  than 
merely  as  a  problem  of  law  and  order.  These  admin- 
istrators and  theorists  think  of  discipline  as  a  positive 
rather  than  a  negative  process.  They  believe  that  in 
the  corporate  life  of  the  school  lie  rich  opportunities  for 
moral,  ethical,  and  civic  training.  Here  should  be  prac- 
tised those  habits  of  initiative,  self-control,  industry, 
courtesy,  morality,  and  those  civic  virtues  that  must 
characterize  the  well  educated.  In  the  school  the  pupil 
should  perform  civic  duties  and  responsibilities  similar 
to  those  which  he  must  assume  as  a  citizen  of  a  democ- 
racy. In  *'  Moral  Principles  in  Education,"  John  Dewey 
has  tersely  expressed  this  point  of  view: 

''Moreover,  the  society  of  which  the  child  is  to  be  a 
member  is,  in  the  United  States,  a  democratic  and  pro- 
gressive society.     The  child  must  be  educated  for  lead- 

239 


240  HIGH  SCHOOL  ADMINISTRATION 

ership  as  well  as  for  obedience.  He  must  have  power  of 
self-direction  and  power  of  directing  others,  power  of 
administration,  ability  to  assume  positions  of  responsi- 
biHty." 

The  advocates  of  the  new  theories  of  school  manage- 
ment and  control  are  keenly  conscious  of  the  ends  to  be 
achieved  and  of  the  problem.  They  are  developing  suc- 
cessful methods  through  experimentation. 

Those  who  cling  to  the  old  ways  are  generally  not 
conscious  of  the  philosophy  underlying  their  practices, 
but  the  old  and  the  new  methods  may  be  clearly  differ- 
entiated. Doctor  Johnston  has,  in  his  "Party  Platforms 
in  Education,"  in  a  whimsical  yet  clear-cut  passage 
stated  the  underlying  philosophies  of  the  two  methods. 
One  or  two  sentences  will  bear  repetition  at  this  point. 
Doctor  Johnston  has  the  "absolutists"  say: 

"They  [the  pupils]  must  lean  upon  the  teacher's  will. 
We  believe  that  the  school  should  not  suffer  the  wast- 
age otherwise  due  to  this  inevitable  floundering  of  young 
pupils  incident  to  all  their  attempts  to  acquire  a  code  of 
self-discipline  with  self-direction. 

"The  school  is  primarily  a  disciplining  institution — 
in  morals  as  in  intellect— and  not  a  place  for  individ- 
uals to  go  through  the  farce  of  'practising  their  indi- 
vidualities.' Pupils  need  rather  above  everything  else 
to  practise  unpleasant  effort,  to  cultivate  the  capacity 
to  endure  drudgery,  to  become  reconciled  to  'hard,  un- 
coaxed,  uncomplimented  work.'" 

And  the  "experimentalists": 

"We  believe  that  the  characteristic,  direct  and  more 
or  less  literal,  school  emphasis  upon  repressive  disci- 
pline, external  direction  of  will,  and  submissive  obedi- 
ence to  'teacher's  orders'  or  to  traditional  conceptions 
of  an  education  superimposed  upon  children's  natures 


ORGANIZATION  AND   GOVERNMENT         241 

should  be  largely  but  gradually  replaced  by  a  different 
sort  of  emphasis.  This  new  emphasis  should  be  upon 
the  constructive  rather  than  upon  the  destructive  policy 
of  making  educational  use  of  all  school  exercises  of  class- 
room and  of  playground— every  incident  of  school  life — 
that  they  may  present  a  'working  contact'  with  the 
average  affairs  of  every-day  life. 

"From  the  point,  then,  of  school  discipline  the  school 
is  primarily  an  institution  for  reproducing  the  forces  and 
environment  of  typical  communities  and  for  gradually 
developing  in  accord  with  this  controlled  social  school 
atmosphere  the  'working  structures'  of  individualities 
found  in  the  pupils.  The  pubHc-school  pupil  comes 
not  primarily  to  learn  but  to  practise  virtue,  not  to  be 
'overlaid'  with  a  moral  veneer,  however  solidly,  but  to 
evolve,  through  the  modern  school's  reproduction  of 
life's  very  acts  of  choice  and  of  self-control  in  various 
intercourse  with  his  fellows,  that  fundamental  con- 
sciousness of  active  workable  Tightness  which  we  call 
character." 

Snedden  has  set  the  problem  concisely  and  at  the 
same  time  described  the  two  points  of  view. 

"...  The  world  once  knew  exactly  how  to  give 
moral  education,  but  that  was  before  the  days  when 
we  talked  about  democracy  or  encouraged  the  rank  and 
file  of  people  to  think  for  themselves,  when  discipline, 
authority,  dogma,  and  other  forms  of  bodily  and  spiri- 
tual coercion  prevailed — as  they  prevail  in  Germany- 
it  was  easy  to  produce  a  submissive,  doc'le,  obedient 
people,  a  people  composed  of  individuals  too  well 
'broken'  to  break  a  law  or  do  an  immoral  act,  if  they 
thought  anybody  was  looking. 

"In  a  democracy  we  have  the  far  more  difficult  and 
worthy  task  of  making  a  people  at  once  law-abiding 


242  HIGH  SCHOOL  ADMINISTRATION 

and  self-governing,  wholesome  in  moral  life  and  yet 
capable  of  free  thinking,  respecting  all  that  is  good  in 
society  and  yet  slaves  of  no  authority.  Truly  we  are 
still  in  the  early  exploration  stages  oj this  great  new  work."^ 

In  the  School  Review  for  March,  1918,  Miss  Olivia 
Pound  reports  on  an  investigation  of  pupil  activities  in 
seventy-five  representative  high  schools.  Toucliing  the 
point  under  discussion.  Miss  Pound  says : 

"There  is  a  wide  difference  in  opinion  amor^g  school 
authorities  in  regard  to  the  advisability  of  student  par- 
ticipation in  the  management  of  the  school.  Twenty- 
three  administrators  seemed  to  have  no  definite  opinion 
on  the  subject.  Others  seemed  to  confuse  the  project 
with  student  self-government,  or  were  opposed  to  it 
altogether,  as  the  following  comments  will  show:  'Stu- 
dents should  study  and  recite,  teachers  should  teach  and 
supervise';  'Students  should  not  have  a  direct  voice  in 
governing  their  fellow  students';  'First  and  second 
year  students  are  incapable  of  self-government,  and 
Juniors  are  little  better.  I  think  Seniors  need  to  be 
backed  up  by  a  pretty  definite  set  of  restrictions'; 
'There  should  be  no  student  participation  in  the  gov- 
ernment of  the  school.  A  school  must  be  a  benevolent 
despotism';  'There  should  be  no  student  participation 
absolutely,  except  as  school  spirit  and  respect  for  proper 
authority  may  assist.' 

"On  the  other  hand,  many  schoolmen  are  enthusiastic 
over  the  possibUities  arising  from  student  participation 
in  the  management  of  the  school.  The  following  quo- 
tations will  give  the  views  of  some  of  them :  '  It  is  ideal 
in  my  opinion';  'They  should  participate  just  so  far  as 
they  will  go.     If  they  succeed  they  have  other  things 

1 "  Character  Education,  Educational  Administration  and  Super- 
vision," June,  1918. 


ORGANIZATION  AND   GOVERNMENT  243 

added  unto  them';  'They  should  participate  to  a  con- 
siderable extent.  To  be  trusted  is  to  be  saved.  Chil- 
dren should  get  in  the  habit  of  taking  responsibility'; 
'They  should  be  allowed  as  much  freedom  as  tends  to 
develop  respect  for  law  and  order,  with  a  large  spirit  of 
co-operation  with  the  faculty';  'Student  participation 
is  valuable  toward  bringing  the  pupil's  mind  to  a  realiza- 
tion of  what  education  and  its  implements  mean  for 
good  citizenship.'" 

Principals  who  think  the  sole  functions  of  pupils  and 
teacher  may  be  expressed  in  the  doctrine,  ''Students 
should  study  and  recite,  teachers  should  teach  and 
supervise,"  or,  "A  school  must  be  a  benevolent  des- 
potism," are  probably  not  conscious  of  the  implications 
of  their  beliefs.  In  all  probability  it  has  never  occurred 
to  them  that  school  government  on  this  basis  would 
differ  from  the  ideals  of  democracy  as  the  night  from 
the  day.  On  casual  inspection  schools  under  their  di- 
rection might  seem  progressive.  There  would  prob- 
ably be  found  numerous  pupil  "activities"  and  a  large 
amount  of  freedom.  A  close  investigation  would  show 
that  these  activities  were  faculty-directed,  while  the 
actual  government  of  the  school  was  autocratic.  When 
this  dictum  holds,  the  pupils  will  not  "get  in  the  habit 
of  taking  responsibility";  they  can  never  be  brought  to 
a  full  "realization  of  what  education  and  its  implements 
mean  for  good  citizenship." 

In  this  book  it  is  assumed  that  the  school  must  be, 
like  the  state  of  which  it  is  a  part,  a  democracy,  and 
this  chapter  is  based  on  the  theory  that  a  democratic 
organization  of  both  the  faculty  and  the  pupil  body  of 
the  high  school  will  provide  the  best  opportunities  for 
the  moral  training  of  its  youth,  will  result  in  better  dis- 
cipline throughout  the  school,  better  courses  of  study 


244  HIGH  SCHOOL  ADMINISTRATION 

and  methods  of  teaching;  in  short,  in  a  more  efficient 
school  from  every  standpoint. 

In  the  last  three  decades  many  attempts  have  been 
made  at  pupil  government.  These  attempts  have  re- 
sulted in  a  monotonous  series  of  failures  which  have 
been  due  primarily  to  a  fundamental  misconception  of 
the  function  and  the  purpose  of  democracy  in  school 
government.  It  is  impossible  to  turn  the  government 
of  the  school  over  entirely  to  the  pupils  for  just  the 
same  reason  that  it  would  be  impossible  to  turn  the  gov- 
ernment of  the  United  States  over  to  young  men  and 
women  of  the  country  who  are  under  twenty  years  of 
age.  These  young  men  and  young  women  are  not  yet 
ready  for  self-government.  They  need  to  be  practised 
in  the  art  before  they  are  given  the  largest  responsibili- 
ties. So  in  the  school.  A  second  reason  for  these  fail- 
ures has  been  that  pupil  self-government  was  attempted 
in  schools  in  which  the  government  of  the  faculty  was 
autocratic.  There  can  be  no  hope  of  successful  demo- 
cratic organization  of  the  pupils  unless  the  entire  organ- 
ization of  the  school,  from  the  top  down,  is  democratic. 
The  first  consideration,  then,  is  the  faculty. 

In  the  final  analysis  the  success  or  failure  of  any  sec- 
ondary school  must  rest  upon  the  principal.  The  prin- 
cipal is  held  accountable  for  the  policy  of  the  institution 
under  his  direction.  This  explains,  in  part,  his  ten- 
dency to  autocracy.  It  also  makes  obvious  the  funda- 
mental importance  of  the  relation  of  the  principal  to  the 
faculty  and  to  the  pupils. 

The  principal  must  not  be  too  much  limited  by  legii- 
lation,  or  so  surrounded  by  committees  and  organiza- 
tions co-ordinate  in  authority  that  he  will  become  pow- 
erless. Large  powers  must  be  reposed  in  this  office, 
but  the  principal  is  not  weakened  if  there  are  regularly 


ORGANIZATION  AND   GOVERNMENT         245 

constituted  and  official  channels  by  which  the  faculty 
can  contribute  to  the  determination  of  policies. 

Nearly  every  college  and  university  has  some  organ- 
ization that  provides,  nominally  at  least,  official  chan- 
nels for  faculty  contributions  to  the  administrative 
policy  of  the  school.  In  most  instances  such  organiza- 
tions are  rudimentary,  consisting  often  of  only  a  few 
standing  committees  appointed  annually  by  the  presi- 
dent, and  in  most  instances  the  democracy  is  more 
apparent  than  real,  actual  authority  being  vested  in 
deans  and  directors  rather  than  in  flexible  committees, 
or  in  senates  and  councils;  while  in  a  few  institutions 
there  are  officially  adopted  constitutions,  representing 
the  best  thought  of  the  instructional  staff,  and  vesting 
in  the  faculty  large  legislative  and  advisory  powers. 
There  is  at  present  a  well-defined  movement,  coming 
largely  from  the  faculties  themselves,  toward  greater 
democracy  in  university  administration.  Already  some 
constitutions  have  been  adopted  or  proposed  that  will 
prove  to  be  real  contributions  to  the  theory  and  prac- 
tice of  educational  administration.  In  high  schools,  on 
the  other  hand,  even  standing  committees  are  practi- 
cally unknown,  while  no  high  school  has  ever  reported 
a  constitution,  written  or  unwritten. 

There  is  no  reason  for  less  democracy  in  the  high 
school  than  in  colleges.  The  bachelor's  degree  is  now 
the  sine  qua  non  for  employment  in  accredited  schools; 
masters'  degrees  are  very  common,  while  even  doctors' 
degrees  are  becoming  numerous  in  the  larger  institu- 
tions. The  best  high  school  faculties  are  superior  in 
training  to  the  best  college  faculties  of  three  decades 
ago,  and  to  the  faculties  of  many  small  colleges  of  to- 
day. To  the  high  school  teacher  is  left  most  of  the 
actual   administration   of   the   school.     It   is   a   short- 


246  HIGH  SCHOOL  ADMINISTRATION 

sighted  policy  that  does  not  make  opportunity  for  the 
teacher  to  participate  in  the  legislation  which  he  must 
carry  out.  High  school  teachers  are,  with  few  excep- 
tions, intensely  interested  in  the  professional  as  con- 
trasted with  the  scholastic  problems  of  their  work.  Pro- 
fessional training  is  now  demanded  of  most  beginning 
teachers  either  by  law  or  by  the  regulations  or  policies 
of  boards  of  education. 

The  faculty  should  participate  in  determining  the 
policy  of  the  school.  If  this  participation  is  to  be  real 
and  effective,  there  must  be  officially  constituted  chan- 
nels for  the  expression  of  faculty  opinion.  Democracy 
that  is  not  organized  is  not  democracy.  Many  princi- 
pals believe  they  are  giving  the  teachers  a  large  share  in 
the  direction  of  the  school  when  they  frequently  call 
experienced  members  of  the  force  into  the  office  for  con- 
ferences about  particular  problems,  and  when  they  act 
on  the  advice  they  receive  on  such  occasions,  or  when 
they  assign  to  the  most  capable  and  experienced  heavy 
administrative  responsibilities.  But  this  policy  fails  in 
reality  in  bringing  to  bear  upon  school  problems  the 
best  thought  and  experience  of  all  members  of  the  staff. 
This  end  can  be  attained  only  through  some  organiza- 
tion which  will  make  suggestions  so  easy  and  natural 
that  teachers  will  not  feel  that  they  are  exceeding  their 
prerogatives  when  they  point  out  defects  of  adminis- 
tration or  criticise  policies. 

It  is  not  difficult  to  define  the  limits  of  faculty  prerog- 
atives in  the  matter  of  legislation  and  administration. 
All  matters  which  directly  concern  internal  adminis- 
tration are  legitimate  subjects  for  faculty  considera- 
tion. Under  this  head  would  be  included  all  the  reg- 
ulations and  rules  of  procedure  relative  to  the  purely 
internal  government  of  the  school.     Under  this  head 


ORGANIZATION  AND   GOVERNMENT  247 

would  also  come  the  development  of  courses  of  instruc- 
tion in  the  various  departments,  the  organization  of 
these  courses  of  instruction  into  curriculums,  and  the 
making  of  rules  regarding  pupil  choices  of  curriculums 
and  courses  and  the  requirements  for  graduation.  Other 
legitimate  subjects  for  faculty  legislation  are  the  award- 
ing of  scholastic  honors,  the  management  of  inter- 
scholastic  pupil  activities,  both  literary  and  athletic,  the 
management  and  supervision  of  pupil  societies,  methods 
of  educational  and  vocational  guidance,  the  adminis- 
tration of  home  rooms,  including  discipline,  record  of 
attendance,  and  the  numerous  other  duties  connected 
therewith.  Of  course  faculty  legislation  is  subject  al- 
ways to  the  veto  of  the  principal  or  of  the  other  regu- 
larly constituted  school  authorities. 

The  faculty  would  not  be  concerned  as  a  legislative 
body  with  the  employment  of  teachers,  the  fixing  of  sal- 
aries, the  introduction  of  new  subjects  of  study,  the 
erection  of  buildings,  or  in  determining  the  general  pol- 
icy of  the  school  system  of  which  the  faculty  is  but  a 
part.  These  larger  policies  must  be  determined  by  the 
board  of  education  and  the  superintendent  of  schools. 
However,  it  is  sound  policy  for  the  superintendent  and 
the  board  to  seek  systematically  the  advice  and  co- 
operation of  all  principals,  supervisors,  and  teachers  in 
the  development  of  school  policies.  An  examination  of 
the  practices  in  American  city  school  systems  will  show 
those  systems  to  be  most  progressive  and  efficient  that 
secure  the  maximum  co-operation  and  initiative  from 
the  teachers. 

Participation  in  the  determination  of  school  policies 
is  vital  to  the  professional  growth  and  development  of 
the  individual.  The  teacher  who  is  compelled  merely 
to  carry  out  the  thoughts  and  plans  of  others  year  in 


248  HIGH  SCHOOL  ADMINISTRATION 

and  year  out,  and  who  must  always  fight  for  the  right 
to  express  in  her  work  her  own  individuality  and  thought 
must  inevitably  become  mechanical  in  her  teaching  and, 
eventually,  so  crystallized  in  her  methods  as  to  make 
the  reception  of  new  ideas  next  to  impossible.  There 
are  to-day  altogether  too  many  such  teachers  in  Amer- 
ican high  schools.  Every  progressive  administration 
finds  such  teachers  the  greatest  obstacle  in  the  way  of 
new  ideas  and  methods.  These  tragedies  can  be  avoided 
only  by  a  faculty  organization  that  will  stimulate  the 
maximum  of  professional  thought  and  initiative  on  the 
part  of  the  individual  teacher. 

Teachers  should  always  be  trained  in  service.  Con- 
ditions make  this  imperative  at  this  time  in  our  high 
schools.  While  some  professional  training  is  now  re- 
quired for  admission  to  most  high  school  faculties,  the 
facilities  for  the  technical  training  of  American  secon- 
dary teachers  are,  as  yet,  wholly  inadequate.  Partici- 
pation in  the  determination  of  policies,  in  the  admin- 
istration of  the  school,  in  the  development  of  courses  of 
study,  of  curriculums,  and  of  methods  is  the  natural 
starting-place  for  all  professional  study  and  growth.  If 
the  administration  does  not  encourage  such  participa- 
tion it  will  be  the  rare  and  exceptional  teacher  who  does 
not  atrophy.  Where  participation  is  required  and  inde- 
pendence encouraged  every  teacher  should  maintain 
through  a  long  period  of  service  and  into  old  age  an 
open  mind  and  a  capacity  for  growth. 

The  particular  form  of  faculty  participation  is  not 
important  so  long  as  there  is  the  reality.  It  is  impossi- 
ble to  have  real  participation  from  all  members  of  the 
faculty,  inexperienced  as  well  as  experienced,  without 
some  regularly  organized  channels.  It  is  not  unthink- 
able that  there  should  be  in  large  high  schools,  just 


ORGANIZATION  AND   GOVERNMENT         249 

as  in  some  large  universities,  constitutions  giving  the 
faculties  their  specific  rights  and  responsibilities.  It 
is  fundamental,  however,  that  the  machinery  of  the 
school  should  not  crystallize  and  eventually  defeat  the 
ends  for  which  it  was  created,  and  this  is  always  a  very 
present  danger.  Flexible  committee  systems  embrac- 
ing all  the  teachers  will  serv^e  every  purpose  and  will 
not  invite  this  danger.  "The  spirit  maketh  alive,  the 
letter  killeth." 

In  one  large  Middle  West  high  school  the  principal 
appoints  annually  the  following  standing  faculty  com- 
mittees: Organization,  Standards  of  Scholarship,  Stu- 
dent Affairs,  Professional  Study,  Assemblies,  Credit 
Adjustments,  Curriculum  Adjustments  (Heads  of  De- 
partments). The  following  are  a  few  of  the  special 
committees  that  were  appointed  in  this  high  school  in  a 
period  of  two  years:  Curriculums  (two  committees — one 
on  curriculum  organization  and  one  on  studies  to  be 
required  of  all  pupils),  War  Work,  Farm  Work  (co- 
operative with  United  States  Boys'  Working  Reserve), 
Scholastic  Honors,  Commencement  Activities.  Each  of 
these  special  committees  was  promptly  discharged  after 
having  faithfully  performed  its  duty.  In  this  school 
the  heads  of  departments  conduct  department  business 
on  the  same  principles. 

Where  there  is  a  co-operative  organization  of  the 
faculty,  pupil  participation  in  the  government  of  the 
school  can  be  made  a  reality.  This  means  that  the  cor- 
porate life  of  the  institution  can  be  used  for  the  civic 
and  moral  training  of  the  boys  and  girls. 

The  American  high  school  has  been  characterized  in 
the  last  three  decades  by  an  amount  of  pupil  "freedom" 
unknown  in  any  other  secondary  school,  with  the  pos- 
sible exception  of  certain  great  EngUsh  schools.     Pupil 


250  HIGH  SCHOOL  ADMINISTRATION 

activities  of  all  kinds,  athletics,  amateur  dramatics,  lit- 
erary and  debating  societies,  departmental  clubs,  social 
clubs,  have  given  great  charm  to  high  school  life.  Some- 
times this  freedom  has  degenerated  into  anarchy  or  has 
resulted  in  antisocial  or  snobbish  clubs  and  societies 
such  as  high  school  secret  societies.  In  a  few  instances 
disastrous  experiments  have  been  made  with  pupil  self- 
government.  In  contrast  with  the  austere  and  auto- 
cratic government  of  the  German  secondary  schools,  a 
government  designed  to  crush  initiative  and  indepen- 
dence and  make  loyal  and  obedient  subjects  for  an 
autocratic  state,  this  freedom  in  American  high  schools 
has  offered  real  opportunities  for  the  development  and 
expression  of  individuality.  But,  with  few  exceptions, 
the  possibilities  have  not  been  realized.  Our  freedom  is 
too  frequently  only  a  veneer  for  what  is  in  reality  an 
autocratic  government  rather  than  the  expression  of  a 
genuine  democratic  spirit  in  the  life  of  the  school. 

The  German  secondary  school  is  well  designed  for  its 
purpose  of  creating  submissive  German  subjects.  Pupil 
initiative  and  responsibility,  independent  social  think- 
ing, are  no  more  wanted  there  than  in  the  German 
state.  Conformity  is  the  all-important  thing.  First  of 
all,  there  must  be  obedience  in  the  state.  Obedience, 
therefore,  is  the  first  lesson  taught  in  the  German  school. 

Just  the  opposite  method  must  be  employed  in  train- 
ing boys  and  girls  for  citizenship  in  a  democracy.  There 
must  be  respect  and  obedience  to  law,  but  thinking 
obedience.  Independence  and  initiative  must  be  en- 
couraged, the  social  mind  must  be  cultivated.  The 
habit  of  participation  in  civic  affairs  must  be  formed. 
A  prejudice  in  favor  of  the  common  good  and  a  willing- 
ness always  to  place  the  common  good  above  selfish 
ends,  even  at  great  personal  sacrifice,  must  be  instilled 


ORGANIZATION  AND   GOVERNMENT         251 

in  every  individual.  The  ideals  of  co-operation,  fair 
play,  respect  for  the  rights  of  others,  and  the  habit  of 
judging  individuals  only  by  their  true  worth  are  funda- 
mental to  the  success  of  American  democracy  and  can 
be  fully  developed  only  by  the  public  schools. 

There  are  outstanding  examples  of  high  schools  in 
which  the  pupil  government  organizations  have  with 
marked  success  largely  taken  over  the  actual  govern- 
ment of  the  school.  Students  of  this  problem  should 
investigate  the  methods  employed  in  such  schools  as 
the  William  Penn  of  Philadelphia,  the  Manual  Arts  of 
Los  Angeles,  the  Washington  Irving  of  New  York,  the 
Decatur,  Springfield,  and  New  Trier  Township  High 
Schools  in  Illinois,  and  others.  In  another  chapter  a 
detailed  description  is  given  of  the  pupil  participation 
plan  in  operation  in  one  school. 

An  excellent  expression  of  the  spirit  and  aim  that 
should  characterize  pupil  participation  is  found  in  the 
following  quotation  from  an  editorial  from  a  paper  pub- 
lished in  a  high  school  where  there  was  an  active  and 
ejffective  organization  for  pupil  participation  in  school 
control. 

"There  is  a  strong  similarity  between  the  governing 
methods  inside  the  school  and  those  of  the  outside 
world.  The  school  is  a  little  state,  a  little  democracy 
all  by  itself.  There  is  the  same  opportunity  for  corrupt 
politics,  the  same  chance  for  graft  and  pork-barrel 
legislation,  that  there  is  in  the  governing  circles  of  the 
nation. 

"Thus  the  student  should  be  just  as  particular  in  his 
selection  of  members  for  the  school  councils  as  he  in- 
tends to  be  in  casting  his  vote  for  representatives  for 
Congress  later  on.  The  school  is  to  be  congratulated 
upon  the  personnel  of  the  councils  this  year.     It  seems 


252  HIGH  SCHOOL  ADMINISTRATION 

that  the  students  have  been  guided  by  the  proper  idea 
in  their  choice  of  representatives. 

"As  the  citizenship  of  a  democracy  has  a  great  respon- 
sibility in  the  electing  of  its  representatives;  so  the  rep- 
resentative has  his  responsibilities.  The  member  of  the 
student  council  must  be  just  as  particular  as  regards 
the  kind  and  quality  of  the  business  transacted  in  that 
body. 

"Upon  the  student's  attitude  toward  the  school  gov- 
ernment now  will  be  built  his  attitude  toward  the  State 
and  nation  later  on.  Keep  in  mmd,  student,  that  the 
school  is  a  little  republic;  that  the  councils  are  the  legis- 
lative bodies;  that  the  principal  is  the  president.  Treat 
the  laws  of  the  school  with  the  same  respect  with  which 
you  treat  the  laws  of  your  state.  If  you  do  this,  we 
predict  that  you  will  be  to  your  nation  the  kind  of  a 
citizen  that  it  needs:  the  citizen  that  votes  for  the  best 
man  regardless  of  his  party;  the  citizen  that  respects 
the  law,  not  because  of  the  force  behind  it,  but  because 
he  realizes  that  obedience  to  the  law  is  necessary  for  the 
welfare  of  the  whole  community.  Then  you  will  be  the 
kind  of  citizen  needed  to  keep  this  country  in  its  posi- 
tion as  a  model  to  all  other  nations." 

The  editor  of  this  paper  and  the  author  of  this  edi- 
torial was  himself  a  member  of  the  "student  council." 
Participation  in  its  work  was  probably  the  finest  experi- 
ence in  his  high  school  life.  Who  could  state  more 
clearly  the  ideals  of  American  citizenship  ? 

Again  the  spirit  and  not  the  form  of  pupil  participa- 
tion is  the  vital  thing.  There  may  or  may  not  be  con- 
stitutions. It  is  essential  that  the  school  be  regarded 
as  a  community  and  the  faculty  and  pupils  as  citizens 
of  it,  that  the  responsibility  of  governing  this  com- 
munity fall  on  teachers  and  pupils  alike,  and  that  the 


ORGANIZATION  AND   GOVERNMENT         253 

pupils  exercise  the  functions  of  government  through 
their  regularly  elected  representatives.  The  practice  of 
the  boys  and  girls  in  the  art  of  self-control  must  always 
be  under  advice  and  control  of  the  faculty,  but  it  must 
be  real,  and  always  the  hardest  thing  for  teachers  to 
learn  will  be  to  keep  far  enough  in  the  background. 

At  first  the  attempts  must  be  more  or  less  crude  on 
the  part  of  both  faculty  and  pupils,  for  democracy  in 
school  government  is  a  new  adventure.  There  will 
doubtless  be  many  failures.  It  will  take  many  years, 
perhaps  decades  to  develop  a  satisfactory  technic. 
Eventually  the  home  and  the  church  must  become 
deeply  involved.  Indeed,  the  principles  underlying  this 
theory  of  moral  and  civic  training  are  so  fundamental 
and  the  problem  is  so  vast  that  the  school  alone  v/ill 
not  suffice  for  their  complete  realization.  "  Truly  we  are 
still  in  the  early  exploration  stage  of  this  great  new  work." 

Any  high  school  administration  that  neglects  even  the 
smallest  opportunities  to  throw  responsibility  on  the 
pupils  is  recreant  to  its  civic  duty. 


A  CONSTRUCTIVE  SOCIAL  PROGRAMME 

The  adolescent  boy  and  girl  are  by  instinct  social 
beings.  From  earliest  childhood  it  is  instinctive  in  the 
child  to  crave  companionship.  In  these  earher  years 
friendships  are  easily  made  and  just  as  easily  broken. 
Comradeship  and  infatuation  are  fleeting,  indeed. 
Within  the  brief  space  of  a  day's  time  two  children  may 
be  on  friendly  and  unfriendly  terms  in  succession  many 
times. 

As  the  dawn  of  adolescence  approaches  the  friend- 
ships formed  are  more  lasting  and  the  response  to  the 
instinctive  call  for  social  intercourse  becomes  more  abid- 
ing. Adolescent  children  form  friendships  often  lasting 
over  a  period  of  time.  During  this  period  the  child  by 
instinct  seeks  for  and  creates  social  situations  in  which 
he  can  become  an  active  participant.  With  the  com- 
ing of  this  period  the  child  feels  less  dependent  upon  his 
parents  for  guidance  and  there  is  an  outcropping  of 
independence  and  freedom  from  the  home  in  the  grati- 
fication of  the  social  instincts. 

Boys  and  girls  of  high  school  age  have  reached  that 
stage  of  development  in  which  they  actively  create 
social  situations  in  which  they  can  participate  more  or 
less  independently  of  direction  from  an  external  source. 
Not  that  they  are  not  amenable  to  suggestions  from  the 
home  or  the  school,  but  they  are  intensely  and  mostly 
interested  in  the  social  activities  which  are  a  natural 
expression  of  their  desires  or  which  they  have  had  some 
share  in  initiating. 

This  tendency  in  the  adolescent  boy  and  girl  can 
be  utilized  and  directed.     It  is  possible  for  the  home 

254 


A  CONSTRUCTIVE  SOCIAL  PROGRAMME     255 

and  the  school,  through  suggestions  of  the  right  sort, 
to  guide  and  direct  these  social  proclivities  into  the 
right  channel,  but  it  is  an  impossible  task  to  abolish 
social  activities  from  the  lives  of  high  school  boys  and 
girls.  These  activities  are  the  natural  expression  of 
human  nature.  It  is  by  no  accident  that  the  social 
affairs  of  high  school  boys  and  girls  have  become  an 
important  matter,  nor  that  Forbush,  in  describing  high 
school  problems,  could  say:  "A  visitor  to  the  assembly 
room  of  a  city  high  school  will  often  find  the  black- 
boards crowded  with  colored  drawings,  executed  with 
ingenuity  and  some  artistic  skill,  advertising  a  dozen 
different  student  organizations.  These  'side  shows'  to 
the  main  'circus'  have  become  a  very  important  part 
of  modern  public-school  life.  They  are  manifestations 
of  varied  instincts  which  are  not  satisfied  in  the  school 
curriculum,  and  furnish  opportunities  for  expression  of 
talent  for  which  the  school  work  itself  is  insufficient. 
Their  significance  in  education  is,  therefore,  great,  and 
progressive  high  school  teachers  are  regarding  them  as 
an  addition  to  their  own  opportunities." 

As  has  been  suggested,  it  is  possible  to  direct  the 
social  life  of  high  school  pupils.  The  form  of  direction 
must  be  that  of  sympathetic  guidance  and  suggestion, 
keeping  in  mind  the  outcropping  of  instinctive  tenden- 
cies. It  is  during  this  period  that  the  instinct  of  clan- 
nishness  or  the  gang  spirit  reaches  its  strongest  devel- 
opment, particularly  among  boys.  At  this  period  mighty 
bonds  tie  boys  to  the  gang  or  the  secret  club  or  frater- 
nity. The  pull  of  this  form  of  social  organization  is  a 
strong  force  with  the  high  school  boy.  He  will  swear 
an  allegiance  to  his  gang  or  club  that  transcends  in  his 
estimation  the  importance  of  his  obligations  to  all  other 
institutions.    This  is  not  an  exaggerated   statement. 


256  HIGH  SCHOOL  ADMINISTRATION 

Boys  have  declared  solemnly  that  their  oath  of  alle- 
giance to  secret  organizations  were  the  most  sacred 
things  in  their  lives.  They  have  been  knovm  to  state 
honestly  that  they  regarded  their  obligations  to  such 
organizations  as  more  fundamentally  important  than 
their  obligations  to  the  school,  the  church,  or  the  home. 
Furthermore,  the  number  of  instances  in  which  high 
school  boys  have  betrayed  the  secrets  of  their  frater- 
nities or  girls  of  their  high  school  sororities  have  been 
very  few  indeed.  In  fact,  it  is  doubtful  whether  any 
adult  has  ever  been  fully  informed  upon  these  things. 
This  unalterable  allegiance  is  even  more  abiding  with 
the  high  school  boy  than  it  is  with  the  adult. 

With  these  tendencies  naturally  a  part  of  the  very 
life  of  the  high  school  boy  and  girl,  not  only  is  it  funda- 
mentally correct  to  state  that  their  social  proclivities 
must  be  directed  in  so  far  as  possible  into  worthy  chan- 
nels, but  their  social  life  under  this  direction  must  be 
real  and  natural.  School  authorities  must  seek  for  the 
development  of  situations  in  the  social  organization  of 
the  school  that  make  a  natural  appeal  to  the  boy  and 
girl  and  secure  their  active  interest.  The  school  in  its 
organization  of  social  activities  must  meet  these  social 
tendencies  and  set  up  a  type  of  social  life  that  parallels 
the  expression  of  the  instinctive  tendencies. 

The  history  of  the  social  organization  of  the  tradi- 
tional high  school  is  replete  with  examples  of  what 
happens  when  the  social  life  has  been  left  to  develop  in 
a  haphazard,  undirected  manner.  It  is  well  within  the 
truth  to  state  that  high  school  secret  societies,  clannish 
and  exclusive  clubs,  and  the  practices  growing  out  of 
the  formation  of  these  organizations,  are  the  natural  re- 
sult of  lack  of  direction.  We  have  in  too  many  in- 
stances considered  social  activities  not  only  an  unnec- 


A  CONSTRUCTIVE  SOCIAL  PROGRAMME     257 

essary  but  a  harmful  adjunct  to  the  school.  In  fact, 
we  have  sometimes  gone  so  far  as  to  say  openly  that 
we  should  discourage  social  activities  on  the  fallacious 
ground  that  with  the  advent  of  these  things  the  stand- 
ard of  scholarship  declines.  We  have  indeed  been 
very  short-sighted  in  our  inability  to  utilize  social  in- 
stincts as  the  means  of  developing  a  programme  of 
natural  and  purposeful  social  activities  that  will  help 
raise  the  standard  of  scholarship  and  conduct.  This 
general  lack  of  appreciation  of  the  fundamental  im- 
portance of  the  social  problem  in  the  organization  and 
administration  of  the  modem  secondary  school  has  been 
a  very  formidable  factor  in  the  development  of  that 
type  of  high  school  society  typified  by  the  fraternity. 

The  history  of  the  development  of  the  social  life  in 
one  large  high  school  during  such  a  period  of  haphazard 
guidance  is  typical,  and  for  that  reason  may  be  used  as 
an  example  of  the  results  attendant  upon  the  neglect  of 
this  whole  problem. 

This  particular  high  school  is  cosmopolitan  in  its 
organization.  There  has  been  nothing  of  the  extraordi- 
nary in  its  growth  and  development.  It  developed  in 
much  the  same  way  that  other  traditional  high  schools 
have  developed  during  the  past  two  or  three  decades. 
As  the  student  body  increased  in  numbers  the  social 
activities  of  the  pupils  began  to  come  to  the  front.  As 
in  other  schools  of  its  kind,  the  social  proclivities  of  the 
boys  and  girls  found  expression  in  some  form  or  another. 
As  was  generally  the  policy  in  those  early  days,  those 
in  charge  of  the  institution  either  took  little  interest  in 
the  affairs  of  the  boys  and  girls  outside  of  the  class- 
rooms or  actively  sought  to  suppress  as  many  of  them 
as  was  humanly  possible. 

Somewhat  later  in  the  development  of  the  school  the 


258  HIGH   SCHOOL  ADMINISTRATION 

traditional  scientific,  debating,  and  literary  societies 
were  organized  and  fostered  by  the  faculty  as  a  means 
of  furnishing  an  outlet  for  the  abundant  spirit  of  the 
adolescent  boy  and  girl.  The  meetings  of  these  organ- 
izations were  serious,  and  it  can  truthfully  be  said  that 
they  fulfilled  the  purposes  of  those  early  attempts  to 
organize  and  direct  social  activities.  It  may  even  be 
said  that  their  meetings  fulfilled  some  of  the  worthy 
purposes  of  secondary  education. 

As  these  clubs  were  operating  and  reaching  the  ze- 
nith of  their  influence,  other  clubs  and  organizations  were 
developing  innocently  and  taking  a  definite  place  in  the 
lives  of  the  boys  and  girls.  In  most  instances  these 
clubs  or  organizations  grew  out  of  associations  entirely 
apart  from  the  school.  One  source  of  these  new  inde- 
pendent organizations  was  the  Sunday-school  class  or 
club.  In  the  beginning  the  social  activities  incident 
to  the  Sunday-school  organization  were  the  reason  for 
their  formation.  They  were  to  strengthen  and  help 
build  up  a  higher  interest  in  the  work  of  the  Sun- 
day-school. In  other  instances  neighborhood  clubs 
were  formed  among  the  children  of  families  having 
common  interests.  It  was  natural  that  their  children 
should  be  drawn  together.  There  were  other  circum- 
stances out  of  which  this  type  of  club  grew,  but  these 
two  examples  are  sufficient  to  give  a  setting  for  the 
development  of  independent  clubs  and  societies  which 
came  to  involve  a  considerable  number  of  pupils. 

Already  certain  suppressed  facts  in  connection  with 
the  apparent  innocent  beginning  of  these  organizations 
are  evident.  First,  the  school  authorities  were  slow  to 
capitaHze  purely  social  activities  for  educational  ends. 
Second,  they  were  unable  to  see  the  far-reaching  effects 
of  these  organizations  springing  up  in  the  community 


A  CONSTRUCTIVE  SOCIAL  PROGRAMME     259 

quite  independent  of  the  school.  Third,  these  inde- 
pendent clubs  and  societies  were,  in  the  beginning, 
entirely  worthy  of  the  time  and  effort  spent  in  organiz- 
ing them  and  in  conducting  their  affairs. 

For  a  period  of  years  the  faculty,  through  steadfast 
maintenance  of  their  methods  of  dominating  the  poli- 
cies of  the  debating,  scientific,  and  Hterary  societies, 
had  kept  these  organizations  in  line  with  their  tradi- 
tional ideas.  On  the  other  hand,  the  independent 
organizations  in  the  community,  lacking  the  guidance  of 
those  trained  in  the  psychology  of  adolescence,  quickly 
came  to  exist  purely  for  social  purposes.  The  members 
divorced  their  activities  from  the  control  and  influence 
of  the  Sunday-school  and  even  of  the  parents.  This 
was  a  very  natural  step,  as  is  evidenced  by  the  fact  that 
it  has  been  duplicated  in  hundreds  of  independent  cases 
throughout  the  United  States.  The  members  secured 
pins,  developed  a  sort  of  secret  code,  and  adopted  some 
type  of  symboHc  language,  word,  or  act.  It  is  no  mere 
coincidence  that  these  organizations  in  this  particular 
school  found  their  counterpart  in  other  cities,  and  that 
out  of  these  common  expressions  of  social  instincts  there 
developed  national  high  school  fraternities  and  sorori- 
ties. This  development  is  the  outcropping  of  the  in- 
stinctive tendencies  of  the  adolescent  boy  and  girl  when 
left  to  their  own  devices. 

Almost  before  the  authorities  had  taken  cognizance  of 
these  independent  organizations  they  had  become  se- 
cretly a  part  and  parcel  of  the  social  organization  of  the 
school.  They  brought  into  the  school  not  only  their 
outward  emblems  of  secret-society  connections,  but 
also  the  spirit  of  clannishness  and  undemocratic  ideals. 
The  members  went  together,  sat  together,  ate  together, 
and  worked  together  within  the  school  in  order  that 


260  HIGH  SCHOOL  ADMINISTRATION 

they  might  further  the  interests  of  the  organizations  to 
which  they  belonged.  Quite  naturally  the  debating, 
scientific,  and  literary  clubs  sponsored  by  the  teachers 
reacted  in  one  of  two  ways  to  this  new  spirit.  They 
either  adopted  the  ways  of  the  secret  societies  and  went 
as  far  as  they  dared  in  imitating  their  methods  and 
spirit,  or  the  members  lost  interest  and  their  clubs 
passed  out  of  existence. 

With  this  important  situation  confronting  the  faculty 
no  guiding  hand  was  forthcoming  to  combat  the  evil 
tendencies  set  up.  The  members  of  the  secret  societies 
began  to  wear  their  pins  openly,  which  in  some  instances 
had  been  purchased  at  a  cost  of  sixty  dollars  and  even 
more.  Dinner  dances,  theatre  and  automobile  parties, 
smokers,  and  annual  banquets  occupied  the  time  of 
members  and  ran  up  the  cost  of  being  one  of  the  school's 
"four  hundred"  to  overwhelming  figures.  Their  organ- 
izations were  maintained  solely  for  social  ends.  The 
members  looked  with  considerable  condescension  upon 
the  plebeian  activities  of  the  rank  and  file  of  the  student 
body.  Such  participation  in  the  school's  activities  as 
they  indulged  in — class  elections,  athletics,  school  par- 
ties, and  other  activities — was  more  for  the  purpose  of 
putting  forward  and  advancing  the  interest  of  the  fra- 
ternity than  due  to  their  real  interest  in  the  work  of  the 
school.  In  class  elections  and  in  athletics  their  tactics 
often  bordered  upon  the  political  chicanery  too  fre- 
quently encountered  in  adult  Hfe.  In  one  instance  a 
worthy  boy  was,  through  the  political  manipulations  of 
the  secret  societies,  defeated  for  a  very  important  office. 
In  another  instance  one  fraternity  sought  for  and  finally 
secured  practically  absolute  control  of  the  athletic  situ- 
ation. One  year  not  a  single  non-fraternity  boy  made 
a  place  on  the  interscholastic  football  team,  although 


A  CONSTRUCTIVE  SOCIAL  PROGRAMME     261 

there  were  six  times  as  many  non-fraternity  as  fraternity 
boys  enrolled. 

This  state  of  affairs  is  not  to  be  wondered  at  when 
one  considers  the  code  of  ethics  under  which  such 
organizations  have  been  known  to  operate.  As  a  part 
of  one  code,  for  example,  the  boy  who  is  a  member  of  a 
fraternity  in  good  standing  automatically  becomes  a 
non-member  when  the  principal  or  other  person  in 
authority  asks  this  question:  "Are  you  a  member  of  a 
secret  society  or  fraternity?"  He  honestly  (?)  an- 
swers "no"  to  this  question.  Immediately  upon  an- 
swering "no,"  according  to  the  code  of  ethics,  he  is 
automatically  reinstated  in  good  standing. 

Under  this  regime,  as  has  been  suggested,  many  of 
the  orthodox  clubs  of  the  school  died  from  lack  of  in- 
terest. They  had  become  too  common,  too  plebeian, 
too  trivial.  The  school  had  taken  on  a  new  air.  The 
pupils  felt  that  they  must  either  belong  to  a  more 
socially  elect  group  or  indulge  in  no  activities  whatever. 
Other  of  these  clubs  adopted  in  spirit  the  methods  of 
secret  societies.  For  example,  they  selected  or  "  spiked  " 
pupils  upon  the  unsustainable  bases  of  wealth,  family 
connections,  social  standing,  automobile,  and  section  of 
the  city  in  which  the  pupils  lived.  In  one  instance  a 
girl  was  proposed  for  membership  in  one  of  these  organ- 
izations because  her  father  had  built  a  new  home  with 
a  ballroom  on  the  third  floor.  In  another  instance  a 
very  worthy  girl  was  "blackballed"  by  her  fellow  pupils 
because  she  did  not  dress  sufficiently  well  to  suit  their 
tastes.  In  still  another  instance  the  girls  had  an  lui- 
derstanding  among  themselves  not  to  ask  to  any  func- 
tion, dance,  dinner,  or  party  any  boy  who  did  not  drive 
an  automobile. 

Naturally  there  developed  out  of  this  state  of  affairs 


262  HIGH  SCHOOL  ADMINISTRATION 

an  unsustainable  social  life.  At  the  beginning  of  each 
new  semester  a  mad  rushing  or  spiking  season  was  con- 
ducted by  all  of  the  secret  societies  and  exclusive  boys* 
and  girls'  clubs.  It  was  indeed  a  hilarious  period  for 
those  who  were  lucky  enough  to  be  chosen  for  member- 
ship. They  were  banqueted  at  the  principal  hotels  of 
the  city,  given  automobile  rides  and  theatre  parries. 
But  those  worthy  boys  and  girls  who  for  some  trivial 
reason  were  not  selected  were  deeply  touched  and  visi- 
bly affected.  In  many  instances  they  withdrew  from 
the  school.  In  every  case  they  were  hurt  by  the  condi- 
tion of  affairs  which  permitted  fellow  pupils  to  sit  in 
sole  judgment  upon  them  and  say  publicly  that  they 
were  unfit  to  hold  membership  in  certain  organizations. 
Snobbishness  and  exclusiveness  ran  riot.  All  clubs  and 
societies  of  the  school  came  to  be  regarded  as  a  means 
by  which  the  pupils  could  indulge  in  purely  social  activi- 
ties. The  school  was  composed  of  cliques  and  groups, 
and  it  was  impossible  to  unify  generally  the  student 
body.  School  spirit  was  at  a  low  ebb  because  the  first 
allegiance  of  too  many  pupils  was  to  some  club  or  secret 
society. 

This  social  condition  had  a  marked  effect  upon  dis- 
cipline, attendance,  tardiness,  and,  as  would  be  expected, 
upon  scholarship.  There  was  an  enormous  amount  of 
tardiness  and  absence  on  the  part  of  those  who  were 
free  to  attend  school  regularly.  School  obligations 
rested  very  lightly  upon  the  pupils.  Classes  were  at- 
tended or  skipped  ahnost  at  will,  and  it  became  a 
common  expression  among  citizens  of  the  community 
that  one  could  tell  where  the  high  school  building  was 
located  when  he  came  within  five  or  six  blocks  of  it  by 
the  number  of  pupils  who  were  standing  on  street  cor- 
ners or  otherwise  idling  away  their  time. 


A  CONSTRUCTIVE  SOCIAL  PROGRAMME     263 

The  statistics  given  below  are  true  of  the  conditions 
that  prevailed  in  the  school  during  the  height  of  the 
secret-society  regime.  The  records  of  all  of  the  secret- 
society  members  and  of  an  equal  number  of  non-secret- 
sodety  members  were  studied.  The  non-secret-society 
group  was  made  up  by  taking  the  name  of  the  first  boy 
on  the  school  register,  which  was  written  alphabetically, 
and  every  fifth  boy  thereafter,  unless  such  fifth  boy  was 
a  secret-society  member.  In  this  case  the  next  non- 
secret-society  boy  in  the  Hst  was  taken.  The  statistics 
are  true  of  one  school  year. 

The  secret-society  members  were  tardy 802  times 

While  the  non-members  were  tardy  only 412  times 

The  secret-society  members  were  absent 1,386  times 

While  the  non-members  were  absent  only 1,085  times 

The  secret-society  members  failed  of  passing  in. . .     102  studies 

While  the  non-members  failed  of  passing  in 48  studies 

The  secret-society  members  made  a  mark  of  90  per 

cent  or  more  in  only 96  studies 

While  the  non-members  made  a  mark  of  90  per 

cent  or  more  in 152  studies 

In  this  connection  the  scholarship  records  made  by 
those  of  these  same  pupils  who  remained  in  school  one 
year  after  the  social  life  of  the  school  had  been  reorgan- 
ized on  a  democratic  basis  are  interesting. 

The  former  secret-society  members  made  marks  of 
90  per  cent  or  more  in  32  per  cent  of  their  studies  as 
against  19  per  cent  the  previous  year.  The  non-mem- 
ber group  made  marks  of  90  per  cent  or  more  in  45  per 
cent  of  their  studies  as  against  29  per  cen  the  previous 
year. 

The  history  of  the  development  and  intrenchment  in 
the  school  of  this  unnatural  social  Hfe  has  been  dupli- 


264  HIGH   SCHOOL  ADMINISTRATION 

cated  in  many  schools.  It  shows  very  clearly  the  re- 
sults attendant  upon  the  general  lack  of  appreciation 
of  the  social  problems  of  high  school  boys  and  girls.  It 
also  reveals  the  need  of  directing  their  social  tendencies 
into  worthy  channels. 

The  surest  guarantee  against  such  conditions  is  the 
organization  of  the  social  life  of  the  school,  first,  in 
keeping  with  the  instinctive  social  tendencies  of  the 
high  school  age,  and,  second,  in  conformity  with  the 
fundamental  principles  of  a  democratic  society.  Need- 
less to  say,  it  is  much  easier  to  organize  and  develop 
such  a  social  programme  before  the  school  has  become 
pervaded  with  the  snobbish  spirit  of  the  fraternity  and 
the  sorority  than  it  is  after  such  evil  tendencies  have 
developed.  In  fact,  after  secret  societies  have  become 
well  established,  it  is  well-nigh  impossible  to  succeed  in 
reorganizing  the  school  through  a  constructive  policy 
alone.  Repression  becomes  a  necessity,  but  a  repres- 
sive policy  must  be  accompanied  by  a  constructive  one. 
A  constructive  social  programme  is  the  best  means 
within  the  reach  of  school  authorities  to  combat  evil 
tendencies  and  misdirected  social  activities,  although, 
as  has  just  been  said,  it  may  have  to  be  supported  for  a 
time  by  a  policy  of  suppression. 

A  constructive  social  programme  designed  to  organ- 
ize and  direct  the  social  life  of  high  school  boys  and 
girls  for  educational  and  citizenship  ends  becomes  a 
profound  obligation.  If  we  are  to  train  boys  and  girls 
for  participation  in  the  civic,  moral,  and  social  respon- 
sibilities of  democratic  citizenship,  we  must  provide  the 
means  by  which  the  pupil  may  begin  the  practice  of  this 
citizenship  in  its  best  sense  while  he  is  yet  in  the  high 
school.  So  many  boys  and  girls  do  not  complete  the 
work  of  the  high  school  that  it  is  doubly  important  that 


A  CONSTRUCTIVE  SOCIAL  PROGRAMME     265 

those  who  remain  be  thoroughly  grounded  in  the  respon- 
sibilities of  citizenship  and  also  in  the  sterling  qualities 
of  leadership.  The  characteristics,  therefore,  of  a  pur- 
poseful programme  of  social  activities  should  be  in 
keeping  with  the  principles  of  democracy.  True  democ- 
racy seeks  for  the  highest  development  possible  of  the 
individual,  but  at  the  same  time  it  demands  that  the 
individual  shall  use  his  talents  for  the  betterment  of 
his  fellow  men.  It  presupposes  both  leadership  and  fol- 
lowership.  It  opens  up  the  avenue  of  opportunity  to 
all  persons  alike,  the  individual  being  limited  in  his 
advancement  to  circumstances  quite  apart  from  the 
theoretical  organization  of  our  society.  In  this  sense 
democracy  is  not  a  leveller  of  persons  or  talents.  De- 
mocracy makes  room  for  people  of  varying  degrees  of 
ability. 

In  a  democracy,  therefore,  we  find  some  people  more 
fitted  to  be  leaders  than  others,  some  more  intelligent 
than  others,  and  some  more  refined  than  others.  They 
differ  in  their  point  of  view,  in  their  attitude  toward 
social,  civic,  and  moral  obligations,  in  their  home  life, 
and  in  other  ways.  While  some  may  accept  the  narrow 
view  of  social  democracy  advocated  by  extremists,  it  is 
an  impossible  task  to  reduce  all  individuals  to  the  same 
general  level. 

On  the  other  hand,  those  who,  because  of  natural 
endowments,  family  connections,  wealth,  refined  man- 
ners, or  for  other  reasons,  seek  to  develop  for  them- 
selves a  caste  or  class  group  are  wrong.  The  caste  sys- 
tem in  America  ought  to  be  an  impossible  thing.  Re- 
gardless of  the  position  one  occupies,  he  should  use  his 
power  and  influence  for  the  betterment  of  society  as  a 
whole  and  not  alone  for  selfish  ends.  With  such  a 
theory  underlying  our  social  structure,  people  of  wealth. 


266  HIGH  SCHOOL  ADMINISTRATION 

of  refinement,  of  social  standing,  or  those  occupying 
positions  of  leadership,  should  conduct  themselves  in 
such  manner  that  by  virtue  of  their  associations  with 
others  they  may  become  the  means  of  inspiration  and 
of  growth  rather  than  objects  of  suspicion  and  even 
hatred. 

Returning  for  the  moment  to  the  secret  society  in  the 
high  school,  it  is  fundamentally  vicious  in  its  tenden- 
cies because  it  creates  within  the  mind  of  the  adolescent 
boy  and  girl  a  kind  of  caste  idea  which  is  positively 
harmful  to  both  those  within  and  without  these  organ- 
izations. It  forces  mere  boys  and  girls  into  maturity 
long  before  they  have  attained  the  perspective  and  bal- 
ance of  adults. 

A  constructive  social  programme,  therefore,  is  that 
programme  which  is  designed  to  utilize  the  social  activi- 
ties of  boys  and  girls  coming  from  all  types  of  homes  in 
such  manner  that  all  will  accept  the  point  of  view  that 
merit  alone  should  count  in  the  advancement  of  the 
individual.  Such  a  programme  of  social  activities  must 
be  built  upon  certain  fundamental  principles  in  keeping 
with  this  conception. 

First,  the  principle  of  active  student  participation 
must  be  dominant.  The  boys  and  girls  must  be  given 
some  opportunity  to  participate  actively  in  the  deter- 
mination of  policies  and  activities  growing  out  of  the 
social  life  of  the  school.  The  best  training  for  the 
activities  of  a  democratic  life  can  be  instilled  in  the 
boy  and  girl  through  practice.  In  general,  a  demo- 
cratic social  programme  is  impossible  unless  the  active 
participation  of  the  pupils  becomes  a  dominant  part  of 
that  programme. 

Second,  a  constructive  social  programme  must  be 
built  upon  the  principle  of  worthy  activities.     It  is  en- 


A  CONSTRUCTIVE  SOCIAL  PROGRAMME     267 

tirely  possible  to  substitute  acceptable  activities  for 
questionable  ones  if  they  are  organized  in  keeping  with 
the  interests  of  the  boys  and  girls.  Worthy  activities 
are  those  organized  and  administered  in  such  a  way  as 
to  meet  one  or  more  of  the  purposeful  ends  of  secondary 
education.  They  are  worthy  if  they  support  or  moti- 
vate the  work  of  the  classroom. 

Third,  the  distinctly  social  life  under  a  constructive 
programme  will  be  made  incident  to  the  worthy  activi- 
ties of  purposeful  clubs  or  societies. 

Fourth,  a  constructive  social  programme  will  be  a 
varied  and  comprehensive  one  in  order  that  the  maxi- 
mum number  of  pupils  may  participate  in  the  extra- 
classroom  activities. 

Fifth,  activities  under  such  a  programme  will  be  open 
to  all  pupils  of  the  school  on  exactly  the  same  basis. 

Sixth,  faculty  participation  and  support  are  essential. 
The  members  of  the  faculty  must  understand  the  prob- 
lems involved  and  actively  co-operate  with  the  pupils 
in  their  social  affairs.  They  must  lend  a  helping  hand. 
As  has  been  clearly  indicated,  the  time  is  past  when  the 
teachers  can  shirk  the  responsibility  of  directing  the 
social  life  of  high  school  boys  and  girls. 

The  success  of  a  large  high  school  in  the  Middle  West 
in  reorganizing  its  social  life  and  developing  a  demo- 
cratic atmosphere  in  the  school  through  the  use  of 
such  a  constructive  programme  as  has  been  outlined  is 
worthy  of  comment.  In  this  school  there  were  eight 
secret  societies  and  seven  exclusive  clubs  which  in  many 
respects  were  legalized  secret  societies.  When  the  com- 
munity and  the  board  of  education  through  propaganda 
had  become  aroused  to  the  state  of  affairs,  action  was 
taken  by  the  board  abolishing  these  organizations  from 
the  school.     This  action  was  not  taken,  however,  until 


268  HIGH  SCHOOL  ADMINISTRATION 

the  pupils  had  been  prepared  for  the  inevitable  step. 
A  demand  for  purposeful  clubs  should  be  developed  as 
far  as  possible  before  formal  action  is  taken  against 
fraternities.  In  some  schools  formal  action  has  not 
been  necessary  to  remove  secret  societies.  They  have 
died  from  lack  of  interest  because  of  the  dominance  of 
the  spirit  of  purposeful  clubs.  Immediately  following 
the  action  of  the  board  the  faculty  formulated  and  an- 
nounced to  the  pupils  and  the  community  their  policy 
looking  to  the  formation  of  new  clubs  and  activities. 
The  regulations  announced  provide: 

1 .  That  membership  in  student  organizations  shall  be 
open  to  all  pupils  on  the  same  basis. 

2.  That  membership  shall  be  determined  by  the  work 
and  purpose  of  the  club  in  accordance  with  the  rules  set 
up  by  the  society  and  approved  by  the  student  affairs 
committee. 

3.  That  all  meetings  shall  be  held  in  the  high  school 
building. 

4.  That  all  organizations  shall  contribute,  in  some 
way,  to  one  of  the  objectives  of  secondary  education. 

5.  That  all  meetings  shall  be  sponsored  by  high  school 
teachers. 

6.  That  all  bills  shall  be  audited  by  the  financial 
board  of  control. 

7.  That  no  student  shall  belong  to  more  than  one 
society  other  than  his  class  organization,  unless  he  meet, 
at  least,  the  eligibility  requirement  in  scholarship  of  the 
athletic  association. 

8.  That  members,  upon  severing  their  connection 
with  the  school,  shall  cease  to  be  members  of  high 
school  organizations  in  exactly  the  same  manner  as  one 
ceases  to  be  a  member  of  a  class  organization. 

9.  That  any  pupil  or  group  of  pupils  wishing  to  apply 


A  CONSTRUCTIVE  SOCIAL  PROGRAMME     26d 

for  permission  to  form  a  new  club  should  arrange  for  a 
conference  with  the  student  affairs  committee  by  seeing 
the  principal  and  filling  out  the  appHcation  blank. 

The  reaction  of  the  pupils  to  the  constructive  policy 
initiated  is  interesting.  The  presidents  of  the  exclusive 
girls'  societies,  which,  in  one  or  two  instances,  had  been 
in  the  school  for  twenty  years,  were  called  into  the  prin- 
cipal's office  for  a  conference  at  the  time  the  societies 
were  abolished.  They  welcomed  the  opportunity  to 
take  part  in  the  new  programme  of  activities  in  which 
all  girls  of  the  school  had  been  invited  to  join.  Some 
of  these  same  girls  who  had  not,  as  a  rule,  associated 
with  those  outside  of  their  group,  were  among  the  very 
first  to  "big  sister"  the  timid,  incoming  freshman  girls. 
These  girls  not  only  entered  into  the  work  of  newly 
organized,  purposeful,  democratic  clubs,  but  they  helped 
to  initiate  them.  The  presidents  of  the  boys'  societies 
admitted  that  their  societies  were  undemocratic.  One 
president  stated  that  he  had  no  desire  to  remain  longer 
in  his  organization  and  that  he  had  expected  to  with- 
draw even  though  the  school  permitted  the  societies  to 
continue.  Some  of  the  leaders  in  the  former  fraternity 
groups  entered  whole-heartedly  into  the  formation  of 
worthy  societies  which  were  organized  on  a  democratic 
basis. 

The  response  of  the  student  body  generally  was  spon- 
taneous and  genuine.  With  the  exception  of  one  fra- 
ternity group,  which  for  a  time  continued  its  acti\dtie3 
in  a  clandestine  manner,  the  fraternities  satisfied  the 
board  as  to  their  conduct.  The  vast  majority  of  pupils 
entered  into  the  spirit  of  the  new  activities,  and  by  the 
end  of  the  first  year  many  purposeful  organizations  were 
in  operation.  Through  these  organizations  and  their 
activities,  practically  every  pupil  in  the  school  was  par- 


270  HIGH  SCHOOL  ADMINISTRATION 

ticipating  in  some  way  in  the  social  activities  of  the 
school. 

An  exclusive  dramatic  society  was  replaced  by  a 
democratic  one,  and  so  many  applied  for  membership 
that  a  waiting  list  had  to  be  arranged.  The  new  society 
had  a  purpose,  and  for  the  first  time  its  membership  was 
generally  open  to  pupils  having  dramatic  ability.  The 
candidates  for  membership  could  not  be  "blackballed" 
by  fellow  pupils,  and  those  who  had  ability  could  be 
sure  of  acceptance  into  the  society.  Exclusive  debat- 
ing societies  were  replaced  by  a  real  discussion  club  that 
immediately  had  a  membership  as  large  as  that  of  those 
replaced.  Other  examples  of  constructiveness  in  hand- 
ling the  social  activities  of  the  school,  such  as  the 
initiation  of  a  writers'  club,  all  girls'  league,  a  music 
club,  the  student  council,  a  nature-study  club,  a  chem- 
istry club,  and  the  girls'  athletic  association,  should  also 
be  mentioned.  Membership  in  these  clubs  was  based 
solely  upon  merit  and  the  interest  of  the  pupil  in  the 
work  of  the  particular  club  or  society. 

It  is  significant  that  the  new  programme  of  social 
activities  resulted  in  the  elimination  of  undesirable  clubs 
and  societies  and  the  initiation  of  worthy  ones  without 
serious  conflict  of  purpose  between  the  faculty  and  stu- 
dent body.  This  fact  demonstrates  that  there  is  a  de- 
mand in  our  secondary  schools  for  a  democratic,  pur- 
poseful organization  of  the  social  life  of  the  student 
body. 

The  spirit  of  the  student  body  and  hence  the  spirit 
of  the  school  are  determined  to  a  very  great  degree  by 
the  type  and  spirit  of  the  social  life.  Through  the  evil 
tendencies  set  up  by  the  wrong  type  of  club  or  society 
the  work  of  the  school  can  be  interfered  with  to  a 
remarkable   extent,   as  has  been   demonstrated  many 


A  CONSTRUCTIVE  SOCIAL  PROGRAMME     271 

times.  On  the  other  hand,  the  right  sort  of  social 
organization  may  become  a  powerful  factor  in  training 
for  citizenship.  It  opens  up  the  avenue  for  training  in 
citizenship  through  practice,  and  this  is  the  best  assur- 
ance we  have  that  our  boys  and  girls  will  go  forth  from 
the  school  capable  of  participating  in  the  responsibilities 
of  adult  life.  A  real  obligation  rests  upon  the  school  to 
direct  the  social  activities  of  high  school  boys  and  girls 
into  worthy  channels. 


SOME  SOCIAL  ASPECTS  OF  PHYSICAL 
EDUCATION  AND  GAMES 

The  wave  of  enthusiasm  for  games,  especially  for 
outdoor  sports,  that  swept  over  this  country  in  the  last 
two  decades,  illustrated  by  the  rapid  spread  of  the 
playground  movement  and  the  growing  popularity  of 
outdoor  games  for  adults,  such  as  tennis  and  golf,  indi- 
cated clearly  that  increasing  emphasis  would  be  placed 
in  and  out  of  schools,  on  the  values  of  physical  training 
and  particularly  of  play. 

The  war  has  given  this  movement  a  mighty  impetus. 
The  examination  of  millions  of  draft  men  has  taught 
Americans  invaluable  lessons.  Hundreds  of  thousands 
of  men  were  found  incapacitated  for  military  service  by 
physical  defects  that  in  youth  could  easily  have  been 
removed  by  medical  attention  or  through  proper  regi- 
mens of  corrective  physical  exercises.  Others  were  in- 
capacitated, not  from  any  organic  defect,  but  merely 
from  lack  of  wholesome  physical  exercise.  The  war  has 
also  shown  that  the  nation  that  neglects  its  man-power 
endangers  its  existence.  Man-power  consists  of  the 
entire  people.  PubHc  health  is  a  national  concern. 
Military  success  depends  not  merely  on  the  army  of 
select  men,  but  upon  all  who  toil.  Large  numbers  of 
physically  unfit  reduce  the  industrial  efficiency  of  the 
nation  and  endanger  the  success  of  the  army.  With 
characteristic  practicalness  the  Americans,  the  moment 
these  facts  were  clearly  understood,  turned  to  a  con- 
sideration of  solutions  of  the  problem.  The  instrument 
lor  its  solution  must  be  the  public  schools. 

A  technical  discussion  of  physical  education  has  no 

272 


PHYSICAL  EDUCATION  AND   GAMES         273 

place  in  this  volume.  The  purpose  of  this  chapter  is 
to  examine  briefly  the  larger  aims  that  should  charac- 
terize a  programme  of  physical  education  in  the  junior 
and  senior  high  schools  and  the  spirit  in  which  it  ought 
to  be  administered. 

Any  effective  system  of  physical  education  must  be 
based  on  thoroughgoing  medical  inspection.  This  medi- 
cal inspection  must  begin  at  the  cradle  and  continue 
throughout  the  child's  public-school  life.  A  cumulative 
record  for  every  individual  is  essential,  a  record  that 
the  pupil  will  carry  with  hitn  from  room  to  room  and 
from  school  to  school,  one  that  is  practical  and  usable 
and  is  used.  There  is  medical  inspection  in  some  Amer- 
ican communities,  but  in  few  places  is  it  effective. 
Ciunulative  cards  are  kept,  but  for  want  of  adequate 
equipment  and  adequate  forces  for  medical  inspection 
and  physical  education  these  cards  are  frequently  un- 
used. Elaborate  examinations  and  record-making  are 
of  no  value  unless  an  honest  attempt  is  made  to  remove 
the  defects  and  to  record  progress. 

There  must  be  a  thoroughgoing  system  of  corrective 
exercises  for  the  elimination  of  physical  defects  revealed 
by  medical  inspection.  Such  provision  will  require  an 
expenditure  of  time  and  money  as  yet  unknown  in 
American  schools.  But  that  it  is  necessary  has  been 
shown  by  the  experiences  of  the  war.  Human  life  has 
been  shown  to  be  so  valuable,  even  from  an  economic 
point  of  view,  that  no  state  can  afford  anything  short  of 
the  maximum  physical  development  of  every  individual 
of  normal  mentality. 

Adequate  provision  for  physical  education  in  Ameri- 
can schools  requires  a  work-study-play  programme  ex- 
ceeding the  dreams  of  even  the  most  ardent  pre-war 
advocate    of    physical    education.     The    provisions    in 


274  HIGH  SCHOOL  ADMINISTRATION 

American  high  schools  are  at  present  utterly  inade- 
quate. It  is  unusual  to  find  physical  education  or  play 
required  for  more  than  a  year  or  two  even  in  the  best 
schools,  and  because  of  physical  limitations  it  can  rarely 
be  required  for  more  than  one  or  two  forty-five-minute 
periods  per  week.  To  be  effective,  this  work  must  be 
continued  not  merely  throughout  the  school  period  but 
throughout  life.  The  high  school  must  provide  a  gen- 
erous period  of  play  for  every  boy  and  every  girl  for 
every  day  the  school  is  in  session.  Such  a  programme 
will  necessitate  large  and  well-equipped  playgrounds 
and  possibly  large  gymnasiums.  The  present  tendency 
toward  outdoor  play  seems  to  be,  from  every  point  of 
view,  exceedingly  wholesome  and  may  result  in  mini- 
mizing the  importance  of  gymnasiums  even  where  the 
winters  are  cold.  But  whatever  may  happen  to  gym- 
nasimns,  commodious  grounds  will  be  required.  It  will 
be  impossible  to  carry  on  an  effective  programme  of 
physical  education  in  a  junior  or  senior  high  school 
whose  real  estate  consists  of  a  down-town  city  block 
entirely  occupied  by  the  building.  Large  school  sites 
will  be  necessary  and  a  programme  of  study  that  will 
permit  of  continuous  use  of  these  grounds  by  large 
groups  of  pupils  throughout  the  day. 

Well-trained  teachers  will  be  the  most  essential  factor 
in  such  a  programme.  The  normal  schools,  colleges, 
and  universities  must  meet  this  teacher  need. 

In  the  programme  of  physical  education  of  the  future 
the  chief  emphasis  must  be  placed  on  the  playing  of 
games.  It  is  primarily  to  stress  this  point  and  to  em- 
phasize the  social  values  that  must  accrue  from  a  whole- 
some programme  of  physical  education  that  this  chap- 
ter is  written. 

Many  experts  hold  that  games  provide,  for  those  who 


PHYSICAL  EDUCATION  AND   GAMES         275 

are  normal  physically,  the  most  natural  and  best  possi- 
ble physical  training.  Games  have  been  introduced 
into  gymnasium  class  work,  and  are  rapidly  encroachiag 
upon  the  time  given  to  the  formal  gymnastic  drill.  The 
setting-up  exercises  are  recognized  as  valuable,  but  no 
longer  monopolize  aU  of  even  short  physical-education 
periods.  The  game  has  values,  which  no  set  of  calis- 
thenic  drills  can  possibly  have.  These  values  are  social, 
and  explain  the  importance  of  the  position  which  games 
are  usurping  in  the  life  of  our  schools,  in  the  regular 
class  work,  in  physical  training,  and,  above  all,  as  an 
extra-classroom  activity.  The  vaHdity  of  our  present 
athletic  practices  must  be  determined  primarily  by  an 
examination  of  these  social  values.  Such  an  examina- 
tion wiU  at  the  same  time  make  clear  the  spirit  and  the 
activities  that  must  dominate  the  physical-education 
programme  of  the  future. 

The  educative  value  of  play  depends  upon  a  strict 
and  immediate  enforcement  of  the  rules  of  the  game. 
Play  without  the  enforcement  of  law,  the  rules  of  the 
game,  immediately  degenerates  into  mere  license,  and 
becomes  antisocial  rather  than  social,  the  participants 
becoming  mere  buccaneers,  steaHng  victory  by  cunning 
or  by  flagrant  violation  of  ethics  and  law;  but  where  the 
rules  are  enforced  games  provide  one  of  the  finest  and 
most  effective  means  of  moral  training.  Where  rules 
are  enforced  and  the  ethics  of  the  game  are  observed, 
victory  depends  upon  obedience,  loyalty,  courage,  the 
sinking  of  self  in  the  common  cause,  team-work,  devo- 
tion to  duty,  initiative,  self-reliance,  determination,  the 
ability  to  face  seeming  defeat  resolutely  and  coolly  and 
with  self-control.  Every  one  of  these  values  is  elemen- 
tal and  must  be  included  in  any  statement  of  the  moral 
aims  of  education  in  a  democracy.     These  virtues  are. 


276  HIGH   SCHOOL  ADMINISTRATION 

to  be  sure,  cultivated  in  many  other  activities  of  the 
school,  in  some  more  and  in  some  less,  but  nowhere 
more  effectively  than  in  a  hotly  contested  athletic  game. 

The  boy  who  in  a  fit  of  anger  commits  an  ugly  foul 
which  brings  down  on  his  team  the  penalty  which  loses 
the  game  is  given  a  vivid  lesson  in  the  importance  of  self- 
control.  He  will  exercise  more  of  it  in  the  next  game; 
and  the  boy  who  bows  to  the  will  of  the  umpire  is  con- 
ceiving a  respect  for  law  that  is  boimd  to  function  in 
every  situation  in  life. 

Then  there  is  that  spirit  of  fair  play,  that  attitude  of 
mind  and  conception  of  sportsmanship  on  the  player's 
part  which  will  make  it  impossible  for  him  to  take  un- 
fair advantage  of  an  opponent,  which  will  make  every 
sharp  practice  repugnant,  and  which  will  cause  him  to 
rejoice  in  his  opponent's  victory  and  sympathize  in 
his  defeat.  The  man  or  woman  who  carries  such  ideals 
of  sportsmanship  into  the  practical  affairs  of  life  cannot 
help  being  a  better  citizen,  and  must  become  thereby 
more  efficient  in  the  rough-and-tumble,  give-and-take, 
of  the  business  and  social  world. 

Games  in  our  public  schools  are,  moreover,  demo- 
cratic. Rich  and  poor  rub  elbows  together  and  merit 
wins.  The  best  man  makes  the  team.  The  entire 
group  is  unified  by  one  common  cause;  social,  racial, 
and  financial  distinctions  are  forgotten  in  support  of  a 
team,  itself  composed  of  representatives  of  all  social 
elements.  The  human  relationships  between  all  classes 
which  such  an  experience  establishes  cannot  but  eventu- 
ate in  strengthened  democracy. 

The  effect  on  the  individual  is  no  less  important. 
Loosely  managed,  the  games  will  detract  from  study, 
will  create  of  the  boys  cheap  sports,  self-centred 
lovers  of  publicity,  will  lead  to  imitation  of  the  evils  of 


PHYSICAL  EDUCATION  AND   GAMES         277 

professional  athleticism;  will  inculcate,  instead  of  the 
manly  virtues,  rudeness  and  dishonesty,  and,  in  general, 
a  low  standard  of  behavior.  Under  proper  admin- 
istration those  personal  virtues  mentioned  above,  of 
honor,  courage,  loyalty,  obedience,  courtesy,  will  be 
fostered  both  in  the  individual  and  in  the  group.  If  the 
athletic  systems  of  the  great  English  public  schools  have 
meant  anything,  they  have  meant  the  training  of  Eng- 
lish youth  in  just  these  values.  But  in  England  it  has 
been  the  ruling  class  which  has  had  the  advantage  of 
this  training.  In  America  the  masses  must  receive  it. 
If  these  experiences  are  worth  anything,  they  must  be 
brought  within  the  reach  of  all.  It  must  be  the  aim  of 
the  junor  and  senior  high  schools  to  make  it  possible 
for  every  pupil  to  play  games,  to  represent  something 
or  somebody  in  athletic  contests. 

These  ideals  cannot  be  fully  realized  until  every 
member  of  the  school,  boy  or  girl,  can  have  the  privilege 
of  representing  some  group  in  the  school  in  a  game;  and 
this  goal  cannot  be  attained  imtil  a  sufficient  number  of 
experts  are  employed  to  organize  and  direct  the  schools 
in  the  playing  of  games,  and  sufficient  gymnasium  and 
playground  space  has  been  provided  to  accommodate 
during  the  course  of  the  day  the  whole  school.  With 
the  advent  of  a  longer  school-day  and  more  adequate 
facilities  for  play,  provision  will  be  made  for  both  indoor 
and  outdoor  play  during  the  day,  after  the  fashion  of  the 
Gary  schools.  There  are  few  schools  at  the  present  time 
in  which  the  ideal  of  every  member  participating  in  play 
can  be  realized.  The  American  people  have  not  yet  been 
educated  to  the  point  of  the  necessary  financial  support. 

In  the  meantime,  the  circle  of  those  participating  in 
games  can  be  enormously  widened,  the  public  must  be 
educated  to  their  value  through  interclass  games,  and  the 


278  HIGH  SCHOOL  ADMINISTRATION 

pupils  must  be  organized  into  clubs  for  athletic  sports,  all 
under  faculty  supervision  but  largely  under  pupil  man- 
agement. In  one  school  in  which  the  every-member- 
partidpating  ideal  cannot  be  realized  because  of  lack  of 
funds,  the  following  intramural  athletic  activities  are 
carried  on:  interclass  basket-ball  tournaments  for  boys 
and  girls;  interclass  baseball  tournament  for  boys;  inter- 
class track  meet  for  boys;  interclass  gymnasium  contests 
for  boys  and  girls;  tennis  tournaments  for  boys  and  girls 
in  neighboring  playgrounds  and  parks;  a  hockey  club, 
with  interclass  contests,  for  girls;  a  "hiking"  club  for 
girls,  and  cross-country  runs  for  boys.  With  even  a 
small  playground  wonders  can  be  accomplished  in  mass 
athletics  when  there  is  a  will  to  do  it. 

There  are  those  who  fear  that  interclass  and  inter- 
group  contests  will  lead  to  rowdyism,  sometimes  in  the 
form  of  color  rushes  and  class  scraps.  Experience  has 
taught  that  these  outbursts  will  not  occur  where  the 
internal  government  of  the  school  is  on  a  democratic 
basis.  To  forego  these  activities  through  fear  that  they 
cannot  be  controlled  is  to  neglect  one  of  the  richest  op- 
portunities for  education  which  the  school  affords. 

It  is  no  longer  necessary  to  argue  in  America  that  the 
playing  of  games  has  the  same  value  for  girls  as  for 
boys.  The  future  mother  of  the  race  must  not  only  be 
strong  and  womanly,  but  also  be  filled  with  the  same 
high  ideals  of  honor,  courage,  loyalty,  and  devotion  that 
we  consider  indispensable  to  the  men  of  the  race. 
Games  can  make  the  same  high  contributions  to  both 
sexes.  Identical  provision  for  physical  education  and 
play  must  be  made  for  both  sexes. 

Are  interscholastic  athletics  justifiable?  Ever  since 
these  contests  were  forced  upon  unwilling  faculties  by 
the  pupils  they  have  been  the  object  of  attacks  by  many 


PHYSICAL  EDUCATION  AND   GAMES         279 

critics.  Nor  has  the  marvellous  development  of  our 
interscholastic  activities  into  a  gigantic  business  with 
enormous  crowds,  enormous  gate  receipts,  boundless  en- 
thusiasm, with  complicated  machinery  in  the  form  of 
associations  of  schools,  and  with  large  bodies  of  officials 
and  elaborate  codes  of  rules  for  the  government  of  these 
contests,  lessened  the  amount  of  criticism.  It  has, 
rather,  increased  it.  The  very  magnitude  of  these 
enterprises  from  a  financial  standpoint  is  one  of  the 
chief  objectives  of  the  attacks  of  the  critic. 

One  of  the  clearest  statements  of  the  arguments 
against  intercollegiate  athletics  is  an  argument  by 
President  Foster,  of  Reed  College.^  President  Foster 
holds  that  the  aims  of  athletics,  when  conducted  for 
education,  are  (i)  to  develop  all  the  students  and  fac- 
ulty physically  and  to  maintain  health;  (2)  to  promote 
moderate  recreation,  in  the  spirit  of  joy,  as  a  preparation 
for  study  rather  than  as  a  substitute  for  study;  and  (3) 
to  form  habits  and  to  inculcate  ideals  of  right  Hving. 
When  athletics  are  conducted  to  win  games,  says  Presi- 
dent Foster,  the  aims  are  (i)  to  win  games— to  defeat 
another  person  or  group  being  the  chief  end;  (2)  to 
make  money — as  it  is  impossible  otherwise  to  carry  on 
athletic  business;  (3)  to  attain  individual  or  group  fame 
and  notoriety.  "These  three — which  are  the  control- 
ling aims  of  intercollegiate  athletics — are  also  the  aims 
of  horse-racing,  prize-fighting,  and  professional  base- 
ball." President  Foster  says  that  intercollegiate  athletics 
must  be  incidental  to  a  regime  in  which  every  one  plays 
for  pure  recreation.  He  bitterly  arraigns  the  vices  of 
college  sports — ''commercialism,"  neglect  of  studies, 
"immorality" — and  advocates  as  a  cure  the  suspension 
of  all  intercollegiate  athletics  for  a  generation. 

^Atlantic  Monthly,  November,  191 5. 


280  HIGH  SCHOOL  ADMINISTRATION 

Other  criticisms  are  that  five  or  eleven  men  cannot 
take  exercise  for  five  hundred  people,  and  that  the  pub- 
licity which  the  "star"  player  receives  is  particularly 
harmful  to  boys  of  high  school  age. 

The  most  common  arguments  on  the  part  of  school- 
men, in  favor  of  interschool  games,  are:  that  (i)  ath- 
letics help  to  discipline  a  school  by  providing  an  outlet 
for  surplus  youthful  energy;  (2)  they  foster  a  more 
unified  school  spirit;  (3)  they  thereby  make  for  democ- 
racy; and,  finally,  they  provide  an  innocent  and  stimu- 
lating recreation  for  the  spectator.  Apologists  even  of 
the  spectacular  side  of  these  great  contests  are  not 
wanting.  .  .  .    Luther  Gulick  says: 

"During  the  late  years  we  have  been  hearing  great 
condemnation  of  intercollegiate  athletics  on  the  ground 
that  the  games  were  played  for  the  spectators,  and  that 
the  spectators,  because  of  their  insistence  on  victory 
and  sensation,  were  debauching  the  game.  Most 
matches  are  played  for  the  spectators.  A  great  baseball 
or  football  match  ranks  with  the  great  play;  it  is  for  the 
spectators.  The  individual  becomes  fused  in  the  great 
social  whole.  This  power  may  be  used  either  for  right 
or  for  wrong,  but  let  us  dismiss  the  notion  that  great 
school  games  are  conducted  for  the  benefit  of  the  player. 
So  far  as  mere  muscular  exercises  are  concerned,  they 
can  be  secured  just  as  well  alone,  in  one's  room.  The 
great  things  in  life  are  social,  and  these  great  games, 
having  appealed  to  the  masses,  must  be  examined  pri- 
marily with  reference  to  their  social  effect."^ 

It  is  evident  that  interscholastic  games  cannot  be 
justified  on  the  ground  that  they  afford  opportunities 
for  physical  education.  The  number  that  receive  this 
training  is  negligible,  and  is  the  group  that  needs  it 

^  Journal  of  Education,  September  10,  1915. 


PHYSICAL  EDUCATION  AND   GAMES         281 

least.  These  contests  must  be  justified  on  purely  social 
grounds,  if  at  all.  Even  President  Foster  does  not  en- 
tirely condemn  them.  He  says  the  attendant  evils  have 
become  so  great  that  they  ought  to  be  suspended  for  a 
generation.  Such  drastic  treatment  will  not  commend 
itself  to  many  people,  but  few  will  disagree  with  his  con- 
tentions that  these  contests  ought  to  be  incidental  to  a 
system  in  which  every  student  participates  in  games. 
There  are,  however,  important  values,  peculiar  to  inter- 
school  contests  themselves.  It  is  a  splendid  training  to 
meet  the  pupils  of  a  school  from  a  neighboring  city  in  a 
hot  contest,  to  put  forth  every  ounce  of  effort  in  a  clean 
fight  for  victory,  yet  showing  the  visitors  every  courtesy 
and  consideration,  to  bear  victory  with  modesty,  or  to 
accept  defeat  with  becoming  grace.  The  treatment  to 
be  accorded  visiting  teams  affords  a  real  opportunity 
for  training  in  self-control,  and  for  developing  that  tol- 
erance and  regard  for  a  stranger,  a  rival,  or  an  oppo- 
nent that  marks  the  cultured  man  or  woman.  Again, 
these  contests,  gripping  the  interests  of  all  the  pupils, 
are  powerful  factors  in  creating  a  wholesome  community 
of  interests  and  in  creating  fine  traditions  in  the  school. 
Rightly  used  they  may  be  made  an  effective  agency  for 
the  moral  and  ethical  education  of  the  spectator  as  well 
as  of  the  players. 

High  school  athletics  ought  to  be  kept  on  a  strictly 
amateur  basis.  Every  reward  of  a  utilitarian  character 
ought  to  be  abolished.  The  practice  of  giving  sweaters, 
blankets,  expensive  watch  fobs,  and  other  useful  arti- 
cles to  members  of  teams  is,  fortunatel}',  fast  falling 
into  disfavor.  No  such  taint  of  commercialism  should 
ever  be  connected  with  these  games.  The  giving  of  the 
school  letters  is,  of  course,  free  from  all  such  objection, 
and  can  be  made  the  occasion  for  crystallizing  in  the 


282  HIGH   SCHOOL  ADMINISTRATION 

minds  of  the  pupils  the  highest  ideals.  Of  course,  in  a 
democratically  organized  school,  as  much  responsibility 
as  possible  will  be  thrown  on  the  pupils  in  the  organiza- 
tion and  management  of  games,  both  intramural  and 
interschool.  Every  such  educational  opportunity  must 
be  improved. 

From  the  standpoint  of  the  administrator,  then,  the 
social  values  of  physical  education  are  of  scarcely  less 
importance  than  the  immediate  aims  of  developing  good, 
strong,  clean  bodies,  and  at  the  present  time  these  social 
values  need  special  emphasis  for  the  reason  that  they 
may  be  overlooked.  It  would  be  possible  to  attain  the 
immediate  aims  of  physical  education  without  securing 
these  social  values.  A  most  efficient  system  of  medical 
inspection  and  of  body-building  exercises  could  be  devel- 
oped and  maintained  without  any  reference  whatever  to 
the  social  values  that  ought  to  be  attained.  But  such  a 
policy  would  be  most  short-sighted. 

The  EngHsh  people  have  long  been  noted  for  their 
love  of  outdoor  sports  and  their  ideals  of  sportsmanship. 
The  people  in  general,  and  particularly  the  middle  and 
upper  class  of  Englishmen  from  which  her  statesmen 
have  been  drawn,  have  been  lovers  and  players  of  games. 
It  is  significant  that  in  more  than  four  years  of  warfare 
not  a  single  human  life  was  lost  at  sea  through  the  fail- 
ure of  the  officers  of  the  British  Navy  and  British  Mer- 
chant Marine  to  play  the  game  according  to  rules. 
Both  on  land  and  on  sea  the  British  were  scrupulous  in 
regard  to  the  rules  of  the  game,  in  other  words,  the 
rules  of  modern  warfare,  in  a  conflict  that  threatened  their 
very  existence.  On  the  other  hand,  Germany  displayed 
a  shameful  lack  of  sportsmanship,  utterly  disregarded 
every  rule  of  the  game.  If  the  Germans  had  learned  to 
play  they  could  never  have  been  so  ruthless  in  war. 


PHYSICAL  EDUCATION  AND   GAMES         283 

The  problem  of  physical  education,  then,  is  a  matter 
of  national  concern.  In  the  first  place,  economic  and 
political  equality  depends  on  the  possession  of  good, 
strong  bodies.  That  nation  that  desires  a  place  in  the 
sun  must  be  industrially  efficient.  Industrial  efficiency 
must  be  founded  upon  the  health  and  physical  efficiency 
of  the  race.  Secondly,  no  democracy  can  afford  to  over- 
look the  opportunities  afforded  by  an  adequate  pro- 
gramme of  physical  education  and  play  for  strengthen- 
ing its  citizens  in  all  virtues  included  in  that  splendid 
term,  "good  sportsmanship." 

Far  more  generous  provision  must  and  will  be  made 
in  the  immediate  future  by  America  for  the  physical 
upbuilding  of  its  youth.  In  this  programme  medical 
inspection,  scientific  gymnastics,  and  corrective  exer- 
cises will  be  given  great  emphasis.  But  the  playing  of 
games  will  be  regarded  as  even  more  important.  Those 
games  that  can  be  played  throughout  life  will  become 
the  most  popular.  The  school  or  the  school  administra- 
tion that  neglects  its  duty  in  this  respect  will  assume 
a  great  responsibility. 


THE  HIGH  SCHOOL  LIBRARY^ 

Recently  a  large  university  had  plans  drawn  for  a 
model  high  school  building.  This  was  in  design  and 
execution  to  reflect  modern  educational  conceptions  with 
reference  to  high  school  architecture.  The  first  and 
even  the  second  elaborate  sets  of  plans  for  this  ''ideal" 
high  school  omitted  all  provision  for  a  library.  No  such 
building  as  projected  in  this  instance,  we  are  but  begin- 
ning to  realize,  can  house  and  provide  for  the  free  and 
full  expression  of  the  activities  which  more  and  more 
are  going  to  centre  in  the  high  school  library.  Indeed, 
the  internal  life  of  the  school  must  for  many  purposes 
centre  in  the  library  rooms. 

The  aggressive  campaign  for  better  books,  better  li- 
brary organization,  and  better  school  librarians  has 
scarcely  begun.  We  have,  and  rightly,  aroused  much 
enthusiasm  over  vocational  guidance,  educational  gui- 
dance, supervised  study,  differentiated  curriculums,  new 
socialized  recitations,  school  "projects"  and  longer 
school-day.  Yet  all  this  loosening  up  of  the  old  formal 
restricted  school  procedure  must  culminate  in  an  efficient 
smooth-working  modern  library  organization  and  cen- 
tre. What  is  meant  by  ''modern  library  organization" 
will  become  increasingly  clear  as  I  proceed.  Somehow, 
we  have  not  been  able  to  make  a  national  issue — a  prop- 
aganda— out  of  our  library  convictions,  as  we  have,  for 
example,  our  methods  of  teaching  spelling.  We  are  not 
in  the  press  enough.     Our  agitation  is  too  ladylike.     We 

^  Address  delivered  before  the  joint  meeting  of  the  Departments 
of  Secondary  Education  and  the  Library  Department  of  N.  E.  A., 
July,  1916,  New  York  City. 

284 


THE  HIGH  SCHOOL  LIBRARY  285 

hark  back  to  anciently  honored  culture  too  exclusively. 
We  do  not  adjust  our  library  theories  to  the  demands  of 
the  educational  journals,  and  write  in  the  language  these 
readers  demand.  There  are  too  few  books  on  the  library 
— especially  the  school  library.  There  are  scarcely  even 
theories  as  to  libraries  for  adolescents.  We  must  invade 
the  field  of  educational  literature  more  boldly  and  read 
into  the  best  educational  theory  to-day  the  library's  pro- 
gramme and  attitude.  Some  one  has  said  that  the 
modem  high  school  recitation  is  one-half  shop  or  lab- 
oratory, one-half  library.  We  have  not  made  this  idea 
articulate  in  the  sense  of  interpreting  it  and  stating  it 
clearly  in  terms  of  actual  systematically  organized  school 
activity.  All  this,  in  part  at  least,  means  that  we  have 
not  at  present,  in  adequate  formulation,  either  our  school- 
library  philosophy  or  its  technic  and  administration. 
I  know  high  school  men  who  are  finely  fired  with  the 
vision  of  our  one  and  one-half  million  high  school  boys 
and  girls  in  the  process  of  being  made  good,  discriminat- 
ing, critical  readers  of  our  daily  and  weekly  publications. 
They  see  that  the  cause  of  nationalizing  (and  interna- 
tionalizing) our  secondary  education  actually  does  de- 
pend largely  upon  our  achieving  this  high  purpose. 
What  these  high-minded  high  school  men  do  not  have 
is  such  a  knowledge  of  school-library  technic,  furniture, 
and  other  appointments,  space  requirements,  trained 
teacher-librarian  standards,  economical  and  efficient 
methods  of  administration,  which  will  make  the  library 
not  a  collection  of  books,  but  a  well-organized,  smooth- 
working,  efficient  "form  of  service." 

Modem  high  school  education  is  no  longer  mere  book 
memorization  in  small  daily  doses  with  verbal  tests. 
Its  method,  content,  and  purpose  have  clearly  broken 
over  all  bounds  of  mere  academicism.    It  is  entering  the 


286  HIGH  SCHOOL  ADMINISTRATION 

twentieth-century  stage  responsive  to  the  peculiar  and 
varied  educational  demands  imposed  upon  it.  These 
demands  in  turn  imply  a  library  organization  and  equip- 
ment correspondingly  varied. 

THE   PRESENT  SITUATION 

There  are  many  evidences  that  the  campaign  for  mak- 
ing library  content  a  vital  force  in  modern  life  is  suc- 
ceeding. The  library  extension  of  itself  into  branches 
means  its  extension  in  function.  While  conditions 
throughout  the  nation  are  very  different,  still  we  are  all 
becoming  aware  of  the  high  spots  as  well  as  the  low. 
We  know  well  that  the  public  has  not  developed  its  con- 
sciousness of  the  value  of  the  book,  that  public-school 
pupils  have  not,  that  even  teachers  are  not  very  respon- 
sive to  the  appeal  for  the  wide  and  economic  use  of 
library  facilities.  We  know,  also,  by  shining  examples 
in  many  states  that  this  consciousness  can  be  developed. 
Few  cities  know  as  keenly  as  Los  Angeles  does  that  as 
yet  only  one-fifth  of  its  people  use  the  proffered  library 
service,  and  while  Portland,  with  its  908  agencies  for 
distributing  books,  may  seem  too  far  away  to  emulate, 
still  no  one  forgets  these  things  and  more  and  more 
begin  to  question  the  possibilities  suggested.  While  the 
91  colleges  and  93  normal  schools,  with  the  assistance  of 
library  schools  and  training  schools  in  city  libraries,  seem 
at  present  a  meagre  source  of  supply  for  the  thousands 
of  possible  fields  for  such  experts,  still  they  constitute 
the  nucleus — a  necessary  and  fairly  well-organized  be- 
ginning. Investigations  like  the  one  at  Rochester  show- 
ing reading  to  be,  in  point  of  time  spent,  the  chief  recrea- 
tion as  well  as  business  of  school  children,  emphasizes 
another  important  kind  of  possible  school-library  ser- 
vice.   While  it  appears  on  first  looking  into  it  that  the 


THE  HIGH  SCHOOL  LIBRARY  287 

various  state  library  associations  seem  to  have  effected 
little  constructive  co-operation  with  any  considerable 
number  of  particular  high  schools,  still  the  intention  to 
do  this  is  clearer  and  the  method  of  approach  determined 
upon. 

This  self-consciousness  of  what  is  to  be  done  has  been 
clarified  also  by  the  disclosures  of  various  so-called  local 
''surveys."  Superintendent  Engleman,  of  Decatur,  111., 
has  contributed  much  by  finding  out  for  a  whole 
school  system  just  what  the  reading  horizons  and  the 
reading  facilities  are  for  his  entire  high  school  pupil 
population.  This  study  in  a  system  where  the  Eng- 
lish and  other  language  departments  are  very  strong 
has  moved  another  school  superintendent,  whose  school 
facilities  for  stimulating  the  use  of  books  are  almost 
criminally  meagre,  to  give,  also,  his  incriminating 
disclosure.  Doctor  C.  E.  Holley  has  shown  the  strik- 
ingly high  correlation  of  library  facilities  in  the  homes 
of  high  school  boys  and  girls  in  several  Western  cities 
with  persistence  in  school.  No  other  condition  has  so 
high  a  correlation.  Principal  White,  of  Kansas  City, 
Kan.,  has  shown  that  lack  of  library  facilities  appears  to 
be  a  larger  factor  in  high  school  elimination.  More 
careful  and  elaborate  studies  will,  doubtless,  create  in 
us  the  "library  conscience"  said  to  exist  now  in  profes- 
sional librarians,  but  very  rarely  to  be  found  in  high 
school  teachers. 

Contributing  in  a  negative  way  to  this  conscience  are 
the  almost  derisive  characterizations  of  the  present  mot- 
ley collections  of  books  going  under  the  name  of  high 
school  libraries.  I  am  impressed  with  the  fact  that  al- 
most all  who  write  or  speak  on  my  present  theme  resort 
to  this  caricaturing  of  school  libraries.  Constructively 
and  of  more  value,  we  have  library  idealists  like  Miss 


28S  HIGH  SCHOOL  ADMINISTRATION 

Hall,  Miss  Hopkins,  and  others,  willing  to  picture  for 
us  the  ideal  school  library,  the  ideal  school  library  archi- 
tecture with  proper  provision  for  the  library,  the  ideal 
librarian,  and  the  ideal  process  when  these  three  factors 
are  harmoniously  working  together  as  an  organic  part 
of  the  school's  life.  We  must  somehow  read  all  this 
into  our  high  school  educational  philosophy. 

A  sketch  of  the  actual  high  school  Hbrary  work  in  a 
particular  state  will,  without  further  comment,  empha- 
size the  need  for  an  aggressive  campaign  for  better 
school  Hbraries.^ 

An  accredited  high  school  is  a  school  whose  instruc- 
tion is  approved  by  the  state  university,  and  whose  stu- 
dents, after  receiving  this  instruction,  enter  the  univer- 
sity without  examination.  To  these  high  schools,  some 
400  in  number,  was  sent  an  elaborate  questionnaire. 
With  this  list  of  questions  we  hoped  to  secure  fairly 
complete  information  from  the  state  as  a  whole  regard- 
ing every  phase  of  library  activity.  We  received  ade- 
quate replies  from  183,  presumably  of  the  better  half  of 
the  total  number;  some  of  these  were  personally  visited 
also.  These  schools  considered,  then,  enroll  60,500  pupils. 
They  appropriate  $23,485  for  library  purposes,  38  cents 
per  pupil.  They  own  203,947  volumes,  3.3  volmnes  per 
pupil.  The  meagreness  of  this  is  apparent  when  we  are 
fainiliar  with  the  elaborate  and  luxurious  scientific  lab- 
oratory and  the  kitchen  and  shop  equipments.  Even 
more  niggardly  does  this  policy  appear  when  we  consider 
the  highly  paid  experts  who  make  the  laboratory  and 
shop  vital  by  spending  their  professional  time  in  per- 
sonal supervision,  and  contrast  with  this  the  almost 

'  I  am  indebted  for  assistance  in  interpreting  the  data  on  high 
school  libraries  in  Illinois  to  Miss  Eliza  R.  Pendrey,  a  graduate  stu- 
dent in  the  university,  now  a  librarian  in  Chicago. 


THE  HIGH  SCHOOL  LIBRARY  289 

total  lack  of  professional  experts,  whose  training  and 
enthusiasm  are  equally  necessary  to  secure  an  equally 
vital  use  of  books.  We  find  only  36  acting  librarians 
with  any  technical  training  at  aU,  and  only  71  with  any 
college  or  university  training.  This  means  with  any 
status  at  all  comparable  with  what  the  pupil  considers 
"professional  standing."  It  means  that  in  the  other  112 
of  the  better  half  of  the  high  school  systems  of  this 
state  either  the  pupils  themselves,  the  office  girl,  the 
needy  friend  of  the  principal  or  school-board  member,  or 
some  one  needing  an  indirect  pension,  or  some  one  book- 
ish but  with  a  floating  residence,  is  presiding  over  the 
books.  It  often  happens  that  it  is  a  teacher  who  must 
do  the  double  (and  doubly  useless)  task  of  tending  the 
books  and  acting  as  the  tired  monitor  of  the  unsuper- 
vised "study  hall."  In  only  twenty-four  school  libraries 
can  there  be  said  to  be  in  operation  moderately  modern 
scientific  methods  of  library  organization  and  admin- 
istration. In  nine  others  an  acting  librarian  gives  half 
time.  In  many  others  a  possible  two  hours  daily  may 
be  given.  Not  infrequently  no  regular  time  is  allotted 
to  any  one. 

It  is  largely  a  matter  of  organization  and  of  library 
conscience,  therefore.  We  must  interpret  our  philoso- 
phy of  school  library  values  in  terms  of  possible  and 
simple  school  administrative  practice.  Our  conception 
of  the  profound  educational  value  of  all  recorded  intel- 
lectual resources  which  may  be  housed  in  school  libraries 
must  be  expressed  in  terms  of  institutional  adjustments 
which  those  in  charge  of  high  schools  can  adopt. 

Thousands  of  books,  selected  without  a  definite  pol- 
icy, uncatalogued  and,  of  necessity,  therefore,  mostly  un- 
used, are  not  worth  a  few  hundred  always  easily  avail- 
able for  immediate  use.    There  are  92  card  catalogues  in 


290  HIGH  SCHOOL  ADMINISTRATION 

these  183  high  schools.  There  should  be  183.  In  the 
equally  important  matter  of  selection,  only  80  use  any 
kind  of  approved  list.  Some  do  not  know  "approved 
lists"  exist,  some  use  lists  in  the  backs  of  standard  dic- 
tionaries, some  even  use  a  text-book  publisher's  lists. 

In  forty-three  of  these  cities  there  is  no  public  library. 
Thirty-two  of  these  high  schools  provide  no  school 
library  room.  Indeed,  only  87  of  these  183  better  high 
schools  have  a  library  room  at  all.  In  most  of  the 
other  96  the  books  are  scattered  from  room  to  room 
and  from  hall  to  study  room  or  principal's  outer  ofl&ce, 
or  alcove  of  assembly  room.  With  no  room,  of  course, 
there  are  no  tables  or  chairs,  no  adequate  reading  light, 
no  comfort,  no  quiet,  no  congenial  surroundings.  Under 
these  conditions  the  supervision  of  a  pupil's  study 
amounts  to  little,  and  the  much-to-be-desired  adven- 
turous and  leisurely  exploitations  of  the  world  in  its 
literature,  and  the  wholesome  light  recreative  reading 
amounts  to  nothing. 

These  high  schools  vary  in  enrolment  from  31  to  3,000, 
yet  there  can,  of  course,  be  no  standard  scale  of  library 
appropriations  for  the  variety  of  equipment  and  profes- 
sional service  required  based  upon  a  per  capita.  In 
many  obvious  respects  library  facilities  for  the  small  and 
the  large  high  school  are  the  same.  The  number  of 
duplicate  copies  and  the  degree  of  co-operation  with  an 
efficient  public  library  are  two  factors  which  affect  ap- 
propriation. In  these  particular  schools,  however,  there 
are  within  the  high  school  group  of  any  equal  enrolment 
a  variation  in  per  pupil  appropriation  of  $0  to  $2. 
What  is  most  interesting,  however,  is  that  the  circula- 
tion or  use  of  library  varies  not  with  its  appropria- 
tion but  with  its  library  rooms  and  trained  librarians. 
The  school  libraries  least  used  have  the  lowest  percen- 


THE  mCH  SCHOOL  LIBRARY  291 

tage  of  library  rooms  and  trained  librarians,  thus  sug- 
gesting a  way  to  allow  volumes  to  stand  imused  and 
money  and  unique  educational  opportunity  to  be  wasted. 
The  only  inference  here  is  that,  therefore,  appropria- 
tion for  the  school  library  is  no  more  standardizable  at 
present  than  is  health,  but  should  correspond  to  possi- 
ble library  use.  There  is  no  limit  in  sight.  None  should 
be  set,  except  as  to  selection,  organization,  and  admin- 
istration. 

In  these  schools  it  is  pleasant  to  note  that  the  open 
shelf  has  almost  entirely  replaced  the  locked  cases  and 
the  closed  stacks.  Nearly  all  the  books  are  for  circula- 
tion. There  are,  however,  few  instances  of  free  text- 
books, and,  unfortunately,  as  yet  these  Hbrary  facilities 
noted  above  are  but  infrequently  open  to  the  commu- 
nity or  to  the  upper-grade  pupils,  and  even  when  they 
are  little  use  of  them  has  been  secured. 

Current  periodicals  increase  in  popularity  and  educa- 
tional use  of  them  becomes  more  general.  The  schools 
report  in  all  1,448  magazines,  59  schools  not  subscribing 
to  any,  however.  Free  government  and  state  bulletins 
are  not  so  generally  received  as  they  should  be,  130  of 
these  schools  receiving  none  at  aU.  This  lost  oppor- 
tunity is  particularly  costly,  of  course,  to  the  depart- 
ments of  agriculture  and  domestic  science.  Again,  only 
five  of  these  high  schools  had  availed  themselves  of  the 
help  of  the  Illinois  State  Library  Commission.  Two  had 
secured  free  loans  of  books,  one  had  had  questions  an- 
swered, while  two  had  been  helped  in  organizing.  Here 
possible  free  and  expert  Uhrary  service  goes  unused. 

The  idea  of  attractive  fibrary  rooms  seems  to  be 
spreading.  The  returns  show  increased  use  of  pictures, 
statues,  window-seats,  noiseless  tables  and  chairs,  bulle- 
tins, book  exhibits,  potted  plants,  flowers,  and  other 


292  HIGH  SCHOOL  ADMINISTRATION 

standard  library  furnishings  and  fittings.  Some  report 
piano  rolls,  slides,  victrola  records,  etc. 

The  "library  consciousness"  of  the  high  school  fac- 
ulty is  reported  as  "low."  The  co-operation  with  trained 
librarians  seems  somewhat  better,  though  the  interest 
on  the  whole  is  chiefly  confined  to  the  English  and 
history  teachers  and  to  such  conventional  library  uses 
as  "required  reading"  and  a  similar  use  of  current  mag- 
azines for  specific  "class  reports."  Some  very  sugges- 
tive things  are  reported,  such  as  "  buUetinizing  clippings 
of  historical  interest,"  collecting  antiques,  serving  read- 
ing clubs,  planning  for  competitive  readings,  and  later 
"extemporaneous"  discussions  of  topics  of  national  in- 
terest. 

It  is  surprising  to  note  that  scarcely  any  of  these  183 
high  schools  so  much  as  mention  the  relation  of  the 
library  to  vocational  guidance,  the  possibilities  of  each 
movement — the  essence — not  being  realized.  Maybe  this 
is  why  each  movement  progresses  so  slowly.  They  need 
each  other.  Also  a  "course  in  vocational  guidance"  is 
wholly  dependent  upon  library  collections  of  the  scat- 
tered and  bulletin  literature.  Indeed,  all  free  class  or 
independent  (senior  high  school)  educational  work  be- 
yond literalness  of  text-book  use  depends  upon  a  good 
school  library. 

As  to  student  activities,  a  few  dramatic  and  literary 
societies  are  reported  as  having  originated  in  the  high 
school  library.  Some  libraries  are  filing  past  debates 
and  past  educational  records,  such  as  examination  ques- 
tions, by  departments.  Many  are  accumulating  pam- 
phlets and  clippings  for  specific  purposes.  In  the  field 
of  art  and  music,  likewise,  sheet  music  and  pictures  are 
being  collected.  Not  much  is  reported  regarding  the 
possible  valuable  collections  of  suitable  library  content 


THE  HIGH  SCHOOL  LIBRARY  293 

bearing  upon  athletics,  health  craft,  holidays,  commence- 
ment, and  other  topics  upon  which  legitimate  interests 
of  high  school  boys  and  girls  are  from  time  to  time 
focussed. 

One  reports  an  interesting  device  for  developing  a 
library  esprit  de  corps. 

"One  phase  of  the  work  here  which  has  proven  very 
satisfactory  and  which  I  have  not  seen  mentioned  as 
followed  elsewhere  is  the  plan  of  having  high  school 
students  as  library  assistants.  I  have  one  for  each 
study  period  in  the  day,  and  also  before  and  after 
school.  Have  had  about  twelve  who  have  worked  this 
year.  This  April  I  took  fifteen  more  and  gave  them 
some  talks  on  the  work  and  some  practice,  and  they 
will  now  be  ready  to  be  regular  assistants  next  year. 
They  charge  and  discharge  books,  and  assist  in  refer- 
ence work,  etc.  They  like  it  very  much  and  are  a  great 
help.     In  fact,  I  could  not  manage  without  them. 

"For  their  side,  they  feel  that  the  familiarity  with  all 
phases  of  library  work,  the  training  in  accuracy,  prompt- 
ness and  reliability,  the  knowledge  of  many  books  they 
would  not  otherwise  come  in  contact  with,  more  than 
compensates  for  the  time  and  work  given.  It  also  in- 
creases their  acquaintances  among  students  and  teach- 
ers and  altogether  is  considered  quite  an  honor.  The 
picnic,  which  includes  all  those  who  have  worked  for  a 
semester  some  time  in  their  course  as  library  assistant, 
has  become  a  very  enjoyable  annual  affair. 

"The  library  class  above  mentioned  is  composed  of 
the  various  assistants,  both  active  and  past.  We  have 
had  to  meet  after  school,  and  so  can  give  but  one  period 
a  week,  which  is  often  broken  in  upon  by  other  things, 
and  is  not  time  enough  for  the  many  interests  we  want 
to  take  up. 


294  HIGH   SCHOOL  ADMINISTRATION 

"This  system  also  does  much  to  make  the  library  a 
vital  part  of  the  school,  so  I  have  taken  the  liberty  of 
calling  your  attention  to  it." 

Only  a  few  schools  offer  classroom  instruction  in  the 
library  art  (or  science)  with  the  school  library  serving 
as  the  laboratory. 

Many  high  schools  are  co-operating  with  the  public 
library,  enjoying  every  desirable  privilege  which  could 
be  offered  pupils  as  well  as  teachers.  In  one  instance 
the  public  library  adjoining  is  almost  a  part  of  the 
school,  a  place  for  study  with  a  plan  of  co-operation  in 
discipline,  of  purchasing  reference  books,  and  a  system 
of  regular  observation  and  report  on  the  study  assign- 
ments of  pupils  in  smooth  operation.  In  several  in- 
stances the  high  school  library  is  a  branch  of  the  public 
library. 

The  most  urgent  reason  for  those  with  the  new  school 
spirit  and  the  library  spirit  in  education  to  come  together 
in  an  institution  which  we  shall  call  ''The  Modern  High 
School"  is  that  in  spirit  they  are  identical.  Their  atti- 
tudes toward  the  real  nature  of  the  educative  process 
are  the  same. 

Perhaps  the  simplest  and  most  desirable  library  con- 
ditions may  be  found  in  three  high  schools  of  the  state 
of  about  500  or  600  enrolment.  In  these  the  problem  of 
attitude  and  discipline  is  not  so  serious  as  to  becloud  real 
library  work,  and  almost  ideal  library  conditions  exist. 
Here  are  found  splendidly  equipped  library  rooms,  excel- 
lent librarians,  and  serious  study  work  being  done  by 
the  pupils. 

One  of  these  is  in  a  school  in  which  supervised-study 
methods  have  been  adopted  and  the  library  fills  a  very 
vital  place  in  the  school.  The  young  people  come  to 
the  library  from  the  various  study  rooms  whenever  they 


THE  raCH  SCHOOL  LIBRARY  295 

wish  to  use  library  books,  or  they  may  sometimes  obtain 
permission  to  come  there  to  study  their  own  books. 
The  librarian  knows  personally  almost  all  of  the  pupils 
and  is  able  to  help  them  in  their  work.  She  has  made 
an  interesting  survey  of  various  study  methods,  and  the 
reflection  of  these  in  subsequent  resulting  recitations. 
She  has  found  that  almost  invariably  a  lack  of  good 
study  methods  in  the  Hbrary  is  correlated  with  low- 
grade  work  in  the  classroom.  Such  systematic  library 
work  is  made  possible  partly  by  the  size  of  the  school 
which  makes  it  possible  for  the  librarian  thus  to  know 
the  pupils  and  their  needs  and  to  do  conscientious  work 
with  them  all. 

Many  interesting  systems  have  been  devised  to  check 
attendance  in  the  library.  Such  systems  include  the 
"admit  slip,"  the  "check  lists,"  "self -registration,"  etc. 
Similarly  various  systems  of  circulation  are  being  used 
to  meet  various  needs. 

One  of  the  larger  high  schools  of  Chicago  has  such  a 
great  demand  for  books  that  it  is  necessary  to  circulate 
them  by  the  hour  during  the  school-day  and  just  over- 
night after  school.  It  may  be  noted  in  passing  that  no 
text-books  or  modem  fiction  are  circulated,  hence  all 
this  demand  for  supplementary  study  and  reference 
work  only.  In  some  periods  as  many  as  40  books  are 
thus  circulated  and  a  maximum  of  185  books  per  day 
has  been  attained.  An  eight  days'  circulation  here  was 
1,070  plus  an  additional  attendance  in  the  library  of 
1,400  students.  As  the  attendance  in  this  library  is 
voluntary  on  the  part  of  the  pupils,  such  a  record  may 
truly  represent  what  a  valuable  addition  and  help  a 
library  is  to  the  pupils  of  the  school. 

Similarly  other  schools  may  be  described  which  are 
doing  earnest  library  work.     Such  hbrary  habits  and 


296  HIGH  SCHOOL  ADMINISTRATION 

appreciation  are  thus  being  developed  as  will  be  of  great 
value  to  the  pupils  after  they  leave  school.  English 
and  history,  and  I  could  include  almost  as  well  any 
school  subject,  can  no  more  be  taught  properly  in  our 
public  schools  without  an  adequate  Ubrary  organization 
than  can  botany  or  physics  be  taught  without  a  labora- 
tory, or  manual  training  or  domestic  science  without 
shop  equipment,  or  athletics  without  a  field.  Our  pres- 
ent educational  emphasis  in  all  grades  of  public  educa- 
tion, admirable  in  some  respects  as  it  surely  is,  is  still 
dangerously  and  will  eventually  be  disastrously  one- 
sided, unless  at  least  one  fundamental  oversight  be  seen 
and  remedied  without  delay. 

Of  our  two  great  sources  and  instruments  of  culture, 
nature  and  human  language,  the  former  of  late,  as  the 
latter  in  earlier  educational  history,  has  tended  to  usurp 
the  field  of  our  school  efforts.  Modern  science  and  mod- 
ern industry  have  by  their  very  vitality  and  obvious 
worth  tended  to  make  us  forget  the  equally  fundamental, 
if  more  subtle,  claims  upon  our  school  equipment  of 
human  language  in  its  broadest  meaning  as  acted  and 
spoken  in  drama  and  poetry,  sung  and  read  in  music 
and  literature.  Somehow  modern  scientific  and  indus- 
trial realism  in  education,  though  succeeding  in  keeping 
alive  our  human  passion  for  experimental  inquiry  and 
investigation  of  all  aspects  of  nature  and  in  satisfying 
our  instinctive  demand  for  participation  in  constructive 
workmanship  and  for  conscious  industrial  service  and 
practice,  even  in  organization  and  leadership,  still  lacks 
a  vital  humanistic  factor.  There  is  one  screw  loose 
in  our  modemly  educated  high  school  boys  and  girls. 
Surely  nature  and  the  occupations  of  man,  through  sci- 
ence and  rightly  conceived  vocational  education,  must 
be  two  of  our  instruments  of  democratic  culture.    As 


THE  HIGH  SCHOOL  LIBRARY  297 

surely,  however,  must  language,  in  the  form  of  literature, 
art,  and  music,  be  basal  to  any  superstructure  designed 
for  our  modern  public-school  system.  The  spirit  of 
scholarship,  of  humanitas,  has  its  early  stages,  its  genetic 
developments,  just  as  has  the  spirit  of  science  of  the  con- 
sciousness of  craftsmanship. 

The  school  library  must  in  every  respect  take  its  place 
with  the  school  laboratory  and  the  school  shop  and  the 
school  gymnasium  and  playground.  This  is  the  funda- 
mental lack  of  our  elaborate  school  plants  to-day.  They 
need  and  they  will  soon  have  this  laboratory  of  the 
humanities.  We  must  and  we  can  without  delay  make 
it  educationally  bad  form  and  bad  business  to  allow  the 
present  impression  of  a  modern  palatial  high  school 
building,  perfectly  appointed  in  most  respects,  housing 
absurdly  such  a  motley  array  of  old  and  useless  and 
dirty  text-books,  out-of-date  encyclopaedias  and  refer- 
ence works,  and  an  unkept  shelf,  full  of  equally  old, 
black,  and  forbidding  volumes  of  departments  of  agri- 
culture, "attic  books,"  gifts  often  of  friends  (?)  who 
wish  to  clean  up  their  own  attics  and  get  their  names  in 
local  papers  as  donors. 

Some  recent  local  "surveys"  have  visioned  for  us  the 
meagre  "reading  horizons"  of  high  school  pupils.  We 
have  found  that  persistence  in  schools  even  seems  to 
depend  upon  books  in  the  home.  We  know  by  records 
of  successful  school  librarians  that  these  "reading  hori- 
zons" of  high  school  pupils  are  amazingly  broadened  as 
we  extend  to  them,  in  any  systematic  way,  reading  facili- 
ties. In  short,  we  know  that  education  will  go  hand  in 
hand  with  accessibility  to  the  world's  store  of  wisdom, 
which — we  must  still  not  forget — is  in  books.  School 
boards  accept  as  a  matter  of  course  the  necessity  of 
spending  large  sums  on  science  laboratories  and  even 


298  HIGH  SCHOOL  ADMINISTRATION 

more  liberal  outlays  on  shops  for  all  the  practical  arts, 
even  to  the  extent  of  minute  conveniences  to  facilitate 
some  minor  instructional  requirements.  The  new  peda- 
gogy for  Latin,  for  English,  and  for  the  social  sciences 
demands  quite  as  elaborate  supplementary  material  in 
the  way  of  modern  Hbrary  appointments.  All  such  mat- 
ters as  library  staff,  technical  training  for  all  high  school 
teachers  of  the  so-called  "humanities,"  administrative 
machinery,  budget  apportionment,  location  of  library 
rooms  and  their  equipment,  courses  for  credit  in  use  of 
books,  etc.,  are  not  fortunately  unescapable  administra- 
tive duties  of  school  officials. 

More  than  anything  else  we  need  to  think  the  library 
into  our  every-day  school  consciousness.  We  need  to 
feel  that  a  school  library,  moreover,  is  vastly  more  than 
merely  a  collection  of  even  choice  books.  The  modem 
school  has  spread  into  an  institution  with  function 
reaching  far  beyond  that  of  merely  intellectualizing  the 
child.  It  cares  for  all  that  pertains  to  the  complete 
flowering  of  the  pupil's  individuality,  hygienic,  intellec- 
tual, sesthetic,  vocational,  moral,  religious.  So  the  mod- 
em adequate  school  library  must  be,  too,  an  institution 
for  the  distribution  and  display  and  for  demonstration 
of  all  legitimate  modern  educational  tools. 


HIGH  SCHOOL  PUBLICITY 

Four  general  attitudes  exist  toward  publicity  of  high 
school  work.  First,  there  is  an  attitude  of  indifference. 
Some  believe  in  publicity  in  a  way,  but  show  no  particu- 
lar interest  and  do  not  seize  upon  opportunities  to  use 
it  advantageously.  Second,  there  is  an  attitude  that 
results  in  the  use  of  publicity  for  selfish  ends.  Those 
having  this  point  of  view  believe  in  publicity  and  are 
often  good  publicity  agents  for  themselves  first  and  the 
welfare  of  the  school  and  community  second.  Third, 
there  is  an  attitude  that  publicity  is  a  thing  to  be 
shunned.  Those  who  shun  publicity  interpret  it  as  a 
means  or  method  of  putting  forward  the  individual 
rather  than  the  work  of  the  school.  Their  modesty 
blinds  them  to  the  possibilities  of  legitimate  advertising. 
The  fourth  attitude  is  one  of  real  interest,  but  is  without 
a  well-organized  and  developed  programme  back  of  it. 
Many  high  school  principals  look  upon  legitimate  pub- 
licity as  desirable  and  necessary  to  realize  the  best  from 
their  efforts  in  the  community.  Although  they  hold 
this  point  of  view,  there  is  no  generally  accepted  pro- 
gramme, practice,  or  method  of  securing  wide  publicity 
of  the  worthy  activities  of  the  school.  In  fact,  little 
constructive  attention  has  been  directed  toward  build- 
ing up  a  programme  of  publicity. 

If  publicity  is  to  be  effective  it  cannot  be  left  to  hap- 
hazard development.  The  thing  which  usually  hap- 
pens in  this  event  is  publicity  of  an  undesirable  kind. 
Certain  activities  and  events  are  emphasized  out  of  all 
proportion  to  their  real  worth,  and  often  unfortunate 
events  are  "played  up"  in  the  daily  papers,  the  total 

299 


300  HIGH  SCHOOL   ADMINISTRATION 

effect  of  which  is  actually  harmful  to  the  school.  In 
one  high  school  in  which  the  reporter  of  the  daily  paper 
assumed  the  role  of  director  of  publicity  for  the  school, 
the  trivial  matter  of  seating  the  assembly  was  written 
up  under  the  glaring  head-line  ''Insurrection  at  the 
High  School."  There  was  no  insurrection,  but  some  of 
the  parents,  following  the  lead  of  the  newspaper,  tried 
to  make  an  issue  of  the  affair.  Under  such  sporadic 
attention  to  publicity,  activities  and  events  of  deepest 
significance  often  pass>  by  unnoticed,  while  many  of  the 
knotty  problems  of  administration  grow  out  of  the  lack 
of  effort  to  create  a  tolerant,  if  not  a  favorable,  public 
opinion  among  both  pupils  and  parents. 

Legitimate  publicity  has  great  possibilities,  and  the 
principal  or  the  agent  responsible  for  the  school's  pub- 
licity really  owes  it  to  the  school  and  the  community  to 
give  the  matter  some  thought.  Big  business  is  built 
up  and  maintained  through  publicity  of  one  kind  or 
another.  It  strives  for  the  creation  of  good-will  and 
faith  in  its  product.  Business  men  realize  that  it  is  far 
easier  for  the  salesman  to  sell  his  product  when  people 
know  about  it  beforehand  and  have  faith  in  the  organ- 
ization behind  him.  In  a  recent  article,  John  N.  Willys, 
president  of  the  Willys-Overland  Company,  said  in 
writing  upon  "Meeting  the  Unexpected":  "We  are  all 
of  us  salesmen  of  one  sort  or  another.  No  matter  where 
we  cast  our  lot,  sooner  or  later  that  big  word  '  Salesman- 
ship '  will  loom  up  and  must  be  reckoned  with.  Whether 
we  are  selling  the  products  of  a  manufacturing  establish- 
ment or  selling  our  services,  the  net  result  must  be  the 
same.  We  must,  by  the  impressions  we  make,  convey 
the  idea  of  ability  and  earnestness  of  purpose.  .  .  . 
Our  promotion  work  consists  in  familiarizing  the  public 
with  our  product  and  methods  so  far  as  is  practical. 


HIGH  SCHOOL  PUBLICITY  301 

We  realize  we  cannot  bring  every  purchaser  to  our  plant 
and  show  him  its  size  and  capacity.  Still,  we  must  in  a 
measure  impress  him  with  it.  We  do  this  through 
rational  advertising  in  various  forms.  ,  .  .  We  realize 
that  a  certain  amount  of  this  work  creates  a  demand 
for  any  make  of  machine.  .  .  .  The  great  cumulative 
effect  of  this  advertising  is  that  our  sales  are  made  more 
quickly  than  if  we  had  not  done  this  pioneer  work. 
No  time  is  lost  in  acquainting  the  buyer  with  the  prod- 
uct.   He  already  knows  about  it." 

Legitimate  publicity  will  do  this  pioneer  work  in  the 
case  of  the  school.  Generally  people  believe  in  their 
schools.  Their  children  are  touched  in  these  institu- 
tions, but  in  reality  their  interest  is  more  or  less  arti- 
ficial because  they  do  not  know  very  much  about  what 
is  going  on,  or  how  the  school  is  really  organized.  Pub- 
licity will  have  a  cumulative  effect  in  bringing  about  a 
better  imderstanding  and  spirit  of  co-operation  between 
the  parents  and  the  school.  It  will  create  interest  in 
the  work  that  is  being  done,  just  as  the  continued  ad- 
vertising of  automobiles  will  to  a  certain  extent  create  a 
demand  for  any  make  of  machine.  Parents  will  come 
to  believe  more  strongly  in  the  school  as  their  knowl- 
edge of  its  affairs  grows. 

There  is  still  great  need  of  securing  the  interest  and 
faith  of  parents  in  high  school  work.  To  some  this 
statement  may  seem  out  of  place,  so  universal  seem- 
ingly is  the  belief  in  the  secondary  school.  But  all  of 
the  more  recent  studies  of  elimination  seem  to  indicate 
more  clearly  than  did  previous  ones  that  pupils  do  not 
withdraw  from  high  school  for  economic  reasons,  except 
in  a  very  limited  number  of  cases,  and  that  more  pupils 
really  leave  the  school  than  earlier  figures  would  seem  to 
indicate.     Van  Denberg,   in  his   study  of   elimination 


302 


HIGH  SCHOOL  ADMINISTRATION 


from  the  New  York  City  high  schools,  showed  that  eco- 
nomic pressure  was  not  a  considerable  factor.  Recent 
figures  on  high  school  enrolment  seem  to  indicate  that 
even  fewer  of  those  who  entered  the  ist  grade  of  the 
elementary  school  than  the  lo  to  14  per  cent  usually 
named  as  the  per  cent  graduating  from  the  high  school 
actually  complete  the  work  of  the  four  secondary  years. 
Some  think  that  6  or  8  per  cent  would  be  more  nearly 
accurate.  Statistics  in  the  reports  of  the  U.  S.  Com- 
missioner of  Education  show  that  not  more  than  38  per 
cent  of  those  who  enter  the  first  year  of  the  high  school 
remain  to  graduate.  The  following  table,  based  upon 
the  records  of  enrolment  in  11,224  high  schools,  shows 
the  distribution  of  pupils  in  each  of  the  four  years  of 
the  high  school  upon  the  basis  of  100  pupils  in  the  first 
year.  This  table  is  arranged  by  geographical  division 
of  the  states. 


FIRST  YEAR 

SECOND   YEAR 

THIRn  YEAR 

FOURTH  YEAR 

North  Atlantic 

North  Central 

South  Atlantic 

South  Central 

Western 

100 
100 
100 
100 
100 
100 

66 
69 
65 
64 
62 
66 

47 
51 
44 
43 
45 
48 

39 
43 
28 
28 
37 
38 

United  States 

In  the  preparation  of  this  table  the  number  of  pupils 
who  were  actually  enrolled  in  the  first  year  of  the  high 
school  was  reduced  to  the  base  100,  and  the  figures  given 
for  the  second,  third,  and  fourth  years  indicate  respec- 
tively the  number  out  of  the  original  100  who  had  re- 
mained in  school  long  enough  to  enroll  in  each  of  these 
years. 

It  is  true  that  the  high  school  enrolment  within  the 


HIGH  SCHOOL  PUBLICITY  303 

past  two  decades  has  increased  about  ten  times  as  rap- 
idly as  the  growth  in  population,  but  the  fact  still  re- 
mains that  only  about  ii  out  of  every  loo  who  enter  the 
elementary  school  complete  the  twelve  years  of  our 
public-school  system.  The  fact  also  holds  that  this  in- 
crease in  high  school  enrolment  has  been  rather  directly 
due  to  a  kind  of  idealism  of  the  present  generation  of 
fathers  and  mothers  that  success  in  life  is  assured  sim- 
ply by  attendance  upon  the  high  school  regardless  of 
the  relation  the  training  received  bears  to  the  actual 
preparation  for  the  work  of  life.  But  this  period  has 
passed.  We  are  now  in  the  midst  of  a  most  scrutinizing 
period  as  to  the  merits  of  the  work  done  by  the  school. 
Attempts  are  now  being  made  to  justify  the  work  in 
terms  of  the  thing  the  pupil  wishes  to  do  in  later  life. 
We  are  really  awakening  to  the  fact  that  our  loss  of 
pupils  is  growing  more  largely  out  of  lack  of  adjustment 
along  this  line  than  out  of  economic  necessity.  In  other 
words,  if  the  number  who  remain  in  our  regular  day 
high  schools  is  very  materially  increased  in  proportion 
to  the  population  over  the  present  figures,  it  will  be 
because  of  the  character  of  the  work  offered  and  its 
relation  to  economic  advancement  rather  than  to  faith. 
The  truth  of  this  statement  becomes  quite  convincing 
when  one  is  dealing  with  parents  or  pupils  who  have 
become  prejudiced  against  further  education.  Faith 
with  them  is  at  low  ebb.  It  is  well-nigh  impossible  to 
do  anything  with  the  child  from  such  homes.  Even 
compulsory  school  laws  do  not  help  very  much,  accord- 
ing to  the  experiences  of  teachers  in  dealing  with  such 
pupils  in  evening  and  continuation  schools  unless  the 
work  offered  really  appeals  to  them  in  terms  of  life-career 
motives. 

A  new  day  is  being  ushered  in.     Curriculums  of  study 


304  HIGH  SCHOOL  ADMINISTRATION 

are  being  organized  to  serve  in  reality  the  needs  of 
clearly  defined  groups  of  pupils,  and  non-essential  stud- 
ies and  parts  of  courses  within  these  curriculums  are 
giving  way  to  the  introduction  of  things  of  more  imme- 
diate importance.  Traditional  curriculums  and  courses 
are  being  reorganized  on  the  basis  of  immediate  rather 
than  deferred  values.  Evening  schools,  continuation 
classes,  part-time  schools,  and  day  vocational  classes 
are  being  organized  to  meet  the  emergency  in  education 
and  to  extend  its  scope  and  opportunities.  The  na- 
tional government  has  entered  the  field  through  the 
passage  of  the  Smith-Hughes  and  other  educational  bills. 
It  has  thus  given  the  movement  to  vitalize  education  a 
great  impetus. 

The  parents  must  be  reached.  They  must  be  con- 
vinced of  the  validity  of  our  new  appeal  to  the  boys  and 
girls  to  remain  in  school.  We  must  have  the  genuine 
support  of  the  home.  We  must  seek  to  build  up  a 
"stay-in-school"  spirit.  The  lack  of  information  on  the 
part  of  parents  as  to  the  real  work  of  the  school  is  ap- 
palling. It  is  not  to  be  wondered  at  that  parents,  under 
these  circumstances,  can  be  prejudiced  in  favor  of,  or 
strongly  and  vehemently  against,  the  school  on  the 
most  trivial  grounds.  A  mere  incident  in  the  day's 
work  is  sometimes  sufficient  to  prejudice  the  parents 
against  the  school.  In  this  day  of  complexities  in  mod- 
ern secondary-school  organization  we  owe  it  to  the 
parents  to  keep  them  informed.  We  must  pursue  a 
policy  of  publishing  as  many  facts  as  possible  about  the 
school. 

The  hidden  premise  in  this  discussion  of  the  need  of 
publicity  in  building  up  a  faith  on  the  part  of  parents 
in  the  work  of  the  school  is  that  publicity  has  great  pos- 
sibilities in  developing  a  genuine  school  spirit  among 


HIGH  SCHOOL  PUBLICITY  305 

the  pupils.  In  fact,  the  use  of  the  children  themselves 
in  creating  a  favorable  attitude  toward  the  work  of  the 
school  cannot  be  stressed  too  strongly.  The  parent  is 
mightily  influenced  by  his  child. 

The  publicity  usually  given  athletics,  for  example,  has 
a  strong  influence  in  building  up  a  school  spuit  and  a 
derived  interest  in  other  activities.  The  prowess  of  the 
team  sheds  some  of  its  renown  upon  the  school,  and  in 
years  of  marked  success  the  entire  community  will  be- 
come intensely  interested.  The  principal  and  teachers 
will,  under  these  circumstances,  often  be  welcomed  and 
counselled  with  by  the  most  prominent  business  men  of 
the  community.  One  school  in  Illinois  which  won  a 
national  reputation  in  athletics  a  few  years  ago  still  feels 
the  beneficent  effects  of  the  interest  aroused  among  the 
parents. 

In  another  large  high  school  the  publicity  growing  out 
of  the  organization  of  and  the  activities  incident  to  a 
programme  for  better  written  and  oral  speech  was  far- 
reaching  in  its  effects  upon  the  pupils  and  through  them 
upon  the  community.  This  campaign  did  much  to  set 
up  new  standards  among  the  pupils  and  create  faith  in 
the  institution  out  among  the  parents. 

The  particular  means  decided  upon  to  accomplish  the 
ends  in  view  was  a  Better  English  Week.  After  reach- 
ing this  decision,  the  teachers  of  the  English  department 
set  aside  one  week  in  the  school  calendar  for  this  pur- 
pose. Weeks  before  the  date  set,  four  committees — one 
each  on  publicity,  class  projects,  posters,  and  assembly 
— composed  of  teachers  and  pupils  were  appointed  to 
organize  and  carry  through  the  many  activities  of  the 
programme. 

The  committee  on  publicity  began  early  to  arouse 
the  interest  of  the  pupils  generally.     It  prepared  a  great 


306  HIGH  SCHOOL  ADMINISTRATION 

deal  of  material  for  the  school  and  city  papers.  Through 
the  efforts  of  the  committee  a  four-minute  speakers' 
contest  was  arranged  and  ten  high  school  pupils  made 
four-minute  speeches  in  the  leading  motion-picture  thea- 
tres on  topics  dealing  with  the  importance  of  the  use  of 
good  English.  The  topics  selected  were:  Good  English 
Is  Essential  to  Every-Day  Living,  The  Value  of  Clear 
Enunciation,  The  Quality  of  English  Learned  by  the 
Foreign-Born,  American  Speech  Week,  English  the  Com- 
posite Language,  The  Value  of  Good  English,  Better 
English  in  the  High  School,  A  Greater  Pride  in  Our 
Language  and  Speech,  Slang,  and  Why  Not  Use  Your 
Own  Language?  The  pupils  were  enthusiastically  re- 
ceived by  the  public  in  every  instance.  The  week 
selected  as  Better  English  Week  was  the  one  set  aside 
by  the  Committee  on  American  Speech  of  the  National 
Council  of  Teachers  of  Enghsh.  Thus  the  school  took 
part  in  a  nation-wide  programme  for  better  speech. 

The  committee  on  class  projects  made  an  appeal  to 
all  classes  in  the  school  to  co-operate  in  the  success  of 
the  week  by  preparing  articles,  writing  verses,  limericks, 
and  songs  for  the  papers.  The  largest  single  project 
planned,  however,  was  the  preparation  of  a  play  to  be 
given  in  the  assembly  before  the  entire  school  and  inter- 
ested patrons.  After  some  discussion  the  writers  club 
in  the  school,  composed  of  about  thirty  pupils  interested 
in  writing,  decided  to  prepare  the  play.  The  result  was 
a  one-act  comedy,  entitled  "Ready  to  Wear,"  the  merit 
of  which  met  with  general  approval.  The  committee 
also  arranged  for  a  tag  day  in  the  school  and  in  each 
home  room  a  sub-committee  consisting  of  about  one- 
fifth  of  the  pupils  was  elected  to  take  charge  of  the 
tags.  They  were  instructed  to  tag  any  one  whom  they 
heard  using  incorrect  English  in  the  halls  and  cafeteria. 


HIGH  SCHOOL  PUBLICITY  307 

The  person  tagged  was  instructed  to  listen  and  put  his 
tag  on  any  fellow  pupil  or  teacher  who  was  guilty  of 
incorrect  usage.  A  number  of  suggested  errors  were 
given  as  a  basis  upon  which  the  tagging  should  depend. 
Many  tags  were  exchanged  during  the  day. 

The  committee  on  posters  offered  a  series  of  prizes  for 
the  best  posters  prepared  by  pupils.  Many  very  worthy 
posters  driving  home  the  benefits  to  be  derived  from  the 
use  of  good  English  were  prepared  under  the  direction 
of  the  art  department,  and  these  were  placed  in  the  cor- 
ridors by  the  committee  in  charge.  During  the  week 
hundreds  of  pupils  and  many  parents  visited  the  corri- 
dors to  see  the  exhibit  of  these  better  EngUsh  posters. 

The  assembly  committee  arranged  the  assembly  at 
which  the  contest  of  speakers  who  were  to  speak  in  the 
motion-picture  theatres  was  held  before  the  student 
body.  This  committee  also  arranged  for  an  assembly, 
when  some  of  the  songs  written  by  the  pupils  were  sung 
and  the  play  written  by  the  writers  club  was  presented. 
A  parody  on  "Smiles,"  sung  at  one  of  the  assemblies, 
ran  as  follows  : 

There  was  a  boy  who  used  bad  English, 
There  was  a  boy  who  used  much  slang, 
And  this  boy  would  always  quake  with  anguish 
When  the  "Better  English"  week  began. 
For  he  knew  that  if  he  used  a  slang  word 
Or  an  error  in  his  speech  he  made 
He'd  be  decorated  by  a  tagger 
And  he  simply  could  not  be  saved. 

The  words  of  one  of  the  pupils  in  summing  up  the 
effects  of  Better  English  Week  show  the  real  interest, 
enthusiasm,  and  success  attending  the  week's  activities. 
"The  whole  week,"  says  the  writer,  "was  regarded  as  a 


308  HIGH   SCHOOL  ADMINISTRATION 

great  success.  Some  might  wonder  if  such  a  movement 
really  accomplished  enough  good  to  warrant  its  exten- 
sion. Such  a  deep-seated  impression  has  been  left  on 
the  minds  of  the  pupils  that  careless  English  is  wrong 
and  disgraceful,  that  no  one  can  question  the  good  to 
be  derived  from  'Better  English'  week. 

"Mistakes  are  still  being  made  and  in  all  probability 
will  be  made  as  long  as  we  speak  the  English  language. 
The  students  have  been  shown,  however,  that  it  is  not 
'  cute '  or  clever  to  use  slang,  and  that  it  is  really  worth 
while  to  substitute  good  English  words  for  slang,  and 
that  our  language  deserves  our  respect  and  attention  to 
keep  it  free  from  the  impurities  which  are  constantly 
lessening  its  beauty  and  worth." 

The  activities  of  this  week's  programme  were  far- 
reaching  in  their  effect.  The  many  ramifications  of  the 
work,  the  appeal  to  practically  all  pupils,  the  active  par- 
ticipation in  the  preparation  of  the  programmes,  the 
team-work,  and  the  enthusiasm  of  the  pupils  carried  out 
into  the  homes  unified  the  school  to  a  remarkable  de- 
gree, and  awakened  in  the  pupils  the  worth-whileness  of 
a  new  and  higher  t}^e  of  school  activity  than  they  had 
been  accustomed  to  before.  .  It  raised  the  school  greatly 
in  the  estimation  of  the  parents  and  increased  their  faith 
in  it  and  its  ideals.  This  work  got  at  the  very  heart  of 
the  school,  the  phase  of  school  work  most  important,  yet 
least  emphasized  and  advertised — namely,  the  common 
activity  of  classroom  teaching. 

The  possibilities  of  publicity  through  a  programme  of 
this  sort  cannot  be  too  strongly  stressed.  It  reaches  the 
parent  through  the  child  and  makes  its  strongest  appeal 
because  it  popularizes  classroom  work  and  makes  it  im- 
portant in  the  eyes  of  the  pupil.  A  programme  of  this 
sort  builds  up  a  genuine  school  spirit. 


HIGH  SCHOOL  PUBLICITY  309 

There  is  still  another  important  function  of  publicity 
in  the  administration  of  our  schools.  Through  publicity 
the  way  can  be  opened  up  for  changes  in  policy.  By  its 
use  the  administrator  can  make  a  radical  change  in 
policy  seem  natural  and  entirely  consistent  when  the 
time  comes  for  its  introduction.  One  high  school  prin- 
cipal, together  with  the  faculty,  spent  one  school  year 
in  giving  to  the  public  pertinent  facts  on  scholarship, 
home  study,  the  overcrowded  conditions  in  the  build- 
ing, and  the  consequent  need  of  making  classrooms  out 
of  study  halls.  By  the  end  of  the  year,  through  their 
recurrent  suggestions  that  supervised  study  was  one 
solution,  the  pupils  and  the  community  were  anxious  to 
try  the  new  plan  of  organization.  In  another  high 
school  the  principal  and  superintendent  convinced  the 
board  of  education  during  a  svunmer  vacation  that  super- 
vised study  should  be  adopted.  When  pupils  and  teach- 
ers returned  in  the  fall  and  fomid  a  new  order  of  things, 
the  result  was  not  altogether  satisfactory.  Neither 
teachers  nor  pupils  took  any  particular  pains  to  insure 
the  success  of  the  new  programme,  and  many  objections 
were  forthcoming  from  the  parents. 

Possibly  the  best  example  of  publicity  as  a  factor  in 
guaranteeing  the  success  of  a  change  in  school  policy  is 
to  be  found  when  an  attempt  to  eliminate  secret  socie- 
ties is  made  after  they  have  become  strongly  intrenched. 
In  this  instance  the  high  school  principal  takes  his  life 
in  his  hand  unless  he  has  the  united  support  of  his  board 
of  education  and  can  create  a  favorable  public  opinion 
out  in  the  commimity.  He  can  talk  the  matter  over 
with  his  superintendent  and  board  from  time  to  time, 
but  to  reach  the  community  he  must  plan  upon  a  defi- 
nite campaign  of  pitiless  publicity  of  facts.  His  cam- 
paign must  precede  his  attempt  to  eliminate  the  socie- 


310  HIGH  SCHOOL  ADMINISTRATION 

ties  and  be  kept  up  throughout  the  time  the  school  is 
dealing  adversely  with  these  pupil  groups.  He  must 
show  the  effects  of  secret  societies  on  attendance,  schol- 
arship, and  discipline,  and  dwell  upon  the  unsustainable 
social  organization  of  the  school,  the  undemocratic 
atmosphere  of  the  institution,  and  the  poHtical  chicanery 
practised  by  secret-society  members.  The  principal  can- 
not take  any  chances.  Once  he  has  embarked  upon  such 
a  programme  he  must  see  it  through,  realizing  all  the 
while  that  he  is  dealing  for  the  most  part  with  the  most 
influential  families  in  his  community,  while  the  public 
generally  will  be  more  or  less  apathetic.  This  general 
constituency  must  be  awakened.  A  very  good  example 
of  the  effectiveness  of  creating  favorable  public  opinion 
on  this  problem  and  the  success  attendant  upon  such  a 
programme  of  publicity  is  to  be  found  in  the  social 
reorganization  of  the  Central  High  School,  of  Grand 
Rapids,  Mich.,  under  Principal  Jesse  B.  Davis.  His 
report  to  the  board  of  education  on  the  elimination  of 
secret  societies  demonstrates  that  it  is  possible  to  reor- 
ganize the  school  and  still  retain  the  support  and  respect 
of  the  community. 

The  elimination  of  secret  societies  from  a  large  high 
school  in  a  university  centre  where  the  problem  was 
found  in  its  most  aggravated  setting  furnishes  another 
example  of  the  efficacy  of  a  programme  of  publicity.  In 
this  school  some  fourteen  or  fifteen  secret  societies  and 
exclusive  clubs  had  become  thoroughly  intrenched,  hav- 
ing a  membership  within  the  school  of  about  300,  and 
an  alumni  membership  in  the  city  of  about  the  same 
number.  Furthermore,  the  university  fraternities  actu- 
ally fostered  the  spirit  of  fraternities  in  the  high  school, 
so  that  the  atmosphere  of  the  high  school  was  thoroughly 
dominated  by  exclusive  clubs  and  cliques. 


HIGH  SCHOOL  PUBLICITY  311 

The  faculty  of  the  school,  under  the  direction  of  the 
principal,  spent  one  entire  year  in  studying  social  con- 
ditions, attendance  problems,  the  scholarship  of  secret- 
society  members  and  non-members,  the  practices  of  the 
secret-society  members,  both  within  their  meetings  and 
in  the  general  school  activities,  and,  finally,  in  securing 
a  complete  roster  of  secret-society  members.  Publicity 
of  these  facts  was  thorough,  use  being  made  of  the  city 
papers  whose  influence  had  previously  been  secured 
through  confidential  facts  submitted  to  them.  Letters 
were  also  sent  to  all  of  the  parents  as  often  as  facts  and 
new  conditions  developed.  When  finally  the  board  of 
education  took  action  abolishing  secret  societies,  it  was 
received  as  a  natural  step.  In  fact,  such  action  had 
been  vigorously  demanded  by  many  prominent  citizens, 
including  the  parents  of  club  members.  At  the  opening 
of  school  the  following  fall  a  referendum  vote  of  the 
parents  on  the  action  of  the  board  in  abolishing  secret 
societies  resulted  in  85  per  cent  unqualifiedly  indorsing 
the  action.  Eleven  per  cent  were  non-committal,  while 
only  4  per  cent  opposed  it.  The  pupils  accepted  in  good 
grace  the  inevitable  and  turned  co-operatively  to  the 
problem  of  organizing  new,  purposeful,  democratic  clubs. 

These  are  some  examples  of  the  possibilities  of  genu- 
ine publicity  in  high  school  administration.  Others  will 
suggest  themselves  to  those  interested  in  making  pro- 
gressive administration  somewhat  easier. 

The  character  and  source  of  the  publicity,  of  course, 
have  much  to  do  with  its  effect  not  only  on  the  com- 
munity but  on  the  pupils  as  well. 

First,  and  probably  most  important,  publicity  must 
be  real  and  natural,  not  forced. 

Second,  it  must  be  based  upon  worthy  school  activi- 
ties.    No  one  would  care  to  have  his  school  rated  wholly 


312  HIGH  SCHOOL  ADMINISTRATION 

on  the  number  of  formal  parties  and  dinner-dances  given 
by  the  exclusive  clubs  in  the  school.  If  publicity  is 
given  to  worthy  activities  these  will  come  to  the  front 
with  remarkable  swiftness.  They  may  even  crowd  out  the 
desire  to  maintain  exclusive  club  activities  in  the  school. 

Third,  publicity  should  emphasize  the  various  activi- 
ties of  a  well-organized  modern  high  school.  This  means 
that  every  worth-while  activity  will  be  treated  in  the 
light  of  its  relation  to  other  activities  and  to  the  school 
as  a  whole.  It  presages  a  weU-balanced  programme  of 
school  activities. 

Fourth,  publicity  should  emphasize  facts  of  actual 
teaching  experiences  and  results.  The  organization  of  a 
Better  English  Week  is  a  splendid  example  of  this  type 
of  publicity.  Another  instance  of  this  type  is  the  real 
school  exhibit  or  the  evening  session  of  day-school  classes 
when  the  parents  are  invited  to  be  present. 

Fifth,  the  most  effective  publicity  grows  out  of  the 
things  pupils  do  themselves.  They  are  intensely  in- 
terested in  the  publicity  of  their  activities,  much  more 
so  than  in  the  more  impersonal  things  about  the  school. 
As  has  been  said  before,  pupils  are  about  the  best  source 
available  for  advertisement  purposes.  They  should  be 
taken  more  into  the  programme  of  affairs  and  be  given 
as  great  opportunity  as  possible  to  participate  in  the 
organization  and  execution  of  student  activities  and  in 
the  conduct  of  classroom  exercises. 

Although  no  generally  accepted  programme  of  pub- 
licity has  been  developed  in  actual  practice,  it  is  quite 
possible  to  see  forcing  itself  to  the  front  the  aim  empha- 
sized in  this  chapter,  namely,  that  of  creating  interest 
and  faith  in  the  work  of  the  school  on  the  part  of  pupils 
and  parents.  Specific  examples  of  attempts  along  cer- 
tain lines  to  accomplish  this  aim  are  extremely  valuable. 


HIGH  SCHOOL  PUBLICITY  313 

One  of  the  outstanding  examples  of  the  co-operation 
of  the  parents  with  the  school,  growing  out  of  active 
pubhcity  of  the  school's  efforts,  is  found  in  the  Frank- 
ford,  Philadelphia,  High  School.  There  the  fathers  have 
organized  a  fathers'  association  which  has  a  member- 
ship of  2,000.  The  meetings  are  held  at  the  high  school 
once  each  month,  with  an  average  attendance  of  800. 
The  organization  works  through  committees  which 
outline  the  work  for  the  year.  The  folder  issued  by 
the  organization  in  191 7  shows  the  enthusiastic  sup- 
port given  the  school  in  its  work.  ''Last  year,"  says 
the  folder,  "we  seconded  the  efforts  of  the  faculty  in 
developing  a  fine  spirit  of  intellectual  endeavor  by 
awarding  prizes  to  honor  students  and  to  members  of 
debating  teams.  We  gave  musical  instruction  to  265 
boys  and  girls  of  the  high  school,  supporting  entirely  the 
orchestra,  the  boys'  glee  club,  the  boys'  mandolin  club, 
the  girls'  chorus,  the  girls'  string  club,  the  quartet.  We 
provided  coaching  and  equipment  for  the  athletic  activi- 
ties of  the  school  in  which  over  700  students  partic^'pated. 
We  had  nine  enthusiastic  meetings,  with  a  total  atten- 
dance of  from  7,000  to  8,000  men.  There  was  for  every 
man  attending  inspiration  and  enjoyment."  Such  an 
organization  of  parents  must  result  in  the  promotion  of 
the  finest  type  of  school  and  community  spirit.  Some 
form  of  parent  or  parent-teacher  organization  is  found 
in  many  high  schools. 

Another  type  of  publicity  found  in  many  schools,  but 
not  yet  common  enough,  is  that  which  endeavors  to 
create  interest  on  the  part  of  the  pupils  about  to  enter, 
and  their  parents.  Many  variations  are  found  in  the 
organization  of  this  work.  The  traditional  activity  of 
inviting  pupils,  together  with  their  parents,  to  the  build- 
ing is  common,  but  plans  which  are  out  of  the  ordinary 


314  HIGH  SCHOOL  ADMINISTRATION 

are  being  carried  out  in  some  cities.  In  the  Rockford, 
111.,  high  school,  for  example,  the  idea  of  the  "big 
brother"  and  "big  sister"  in  helping  the  incoming  pupils 
to  make  adjustments  is  being  developed.  The  pupils 
from  the  grade  schools  come  in  small  groups  to  the  high 
school  and  spend  a  day  in  company  with  an  older  pupil, 
who  acquaints  his  proteges  with  the  "ins  and  outs"  of 
the  school.  In  other  schools  boys'  and  girls'  clubs,  or 
the  student  council,  take  charge  of  the  pupils,  while  in 
still  others  special  programmes  of  interest  are  prepared 
for  them  and  their  parents. 

Probably  the  most  elaborate  scheme  along  this  line 
was  worked  out  in  Pittsburgh  a  few  years  ago.  A  hand- 
book on  the  Pittsburgh  high  schools  was  issued  and  dis- 
tributed to  the  pupils  of  the  7th  and  8th  grades.  Be- 
fore it  was  printed  these  pupils  were  invited  to  a  can- 
tata rendered  by  the  pupils  of  the  high  schools  in  the 
Carnegie  Music  Hall,  and  a  reserved  seat  was  given  to 
each  pupil,  teacher,  and  principal.  Between  acts  the 
cheer  leader  taught  them  the  high  school  yells  and  in- 
vited them  to  the  high  school  baseball  game  the  next 
day.  At  the  game  these  pupils  were  assembled  back  of 
the  team  and  a  group  picture  was  taken.  This  picture 
was  used  in  the  handbook  later  distributed  among  the 
pupils.  In  essays  written  by  the  pupils  the  following 
year  on  "Why  I  Entered  High  School,"  many  give  credit 
to  this  handbook.  No  doubt  they  meant  in  reality  the 
whole  programme  which  culminated  in  the  issuance  of 
the  handbook. 

As  long  as  possible  the  high  school  should  arrange  for 
these  personal  contacts  with  the  incoming  pupils,  but  in 
the  larger  school  systems  it  is  sometimes  necessary  to 
rely  upon  literature  issued  by  the  high  schools  and  han- 
dled by  the  elementary  school  principal.     The  hand- 


HIGH  SCHOOL  PUBLICITY  315 

book  issued  by  the  Chicago  board  of  education  in  Janu- 
ary, 1 9 19,  contains  much  valuable  information  for  the 
prospective  pupil  and  his  parents.  The  first  page  is  a 
pointed  answer  to  the  question  "What  does  the  Future 
Hold  for  an  Eighth  Grade  Graduate  ?  "  The  second  page 
states  succinctly  what  the  high  school  offers.  Many 
school  systems  prepare  these  handbooks  or  leaflets,  but 
they  deserve  even  more  attention  than  has  been  given 
therti. 

A  school  manual  can  also  be  of  great  service,  if  it  is 
properly  prepared.  Many  schools  are  issuing  manuals 
which  describe  the  organization  of  the  school  and  offer 
valuable  suggestions  as  to  curriculums  of  study  and 
courses.  To  be  of  greatest  service  to  the  parents,  a 
manual  should  give  in  detail  the  administration  and 
social  organization  of  the  school.  It  should  also  give 
in  detail  the  curriculum  organization  and  the  purposes 
each  curriculum  is  designed  to  serve.  It  should  contain 
much  material  descriptive  of  the  courses  of  study  offered 
in  each  curriculum  and  the  aims  underlying  them.  It 
is  asking  too  much  of  parents  to  choose  or  assist  in  the 
choice  of  studies  for  the  incoming  pupils  merely  upon 
the  basis  of  the  names  of  the  courses.  A  manual,  such 
as  described  here,  will  likewise  be  of  great  help  to  the 
faculty  not  only  through  its  preparation,  but  in  giving 
them  a  better  conception  of  the  scope  and  purpose  of 
the  many  activities  of  the  present-day  secondary  school. 

The  co-operation  of  the  school  in  community  projects 
is  a  most  important  source  of  publicity.  This  is  often 
the  source  of  the  finest  type  of  school  and  community 
spirit.  During  the  war  many  schools  co-operated  in 
Red  Cross  work  and  war  work  activities,  and  as  a  result 
won  the  sincere  admiration  of  the  most  prominent 
citizens  of  the  community.     Incidentally,  the  teachers 


316  HIGH  SCHOOL  ADMINISTRATION 

learned  that  real  projects  for  teaching  purposes  can  be 
found  in  the  community  life  about  them.  A  description 
of  the  Greek  games  in  connection  with  Red  Cross  inter- 
ests given  by  the  Central  High  School  of  St.  Louis  in 
Forest  Park  shows  some  of  the  possibilities  of  commu- 
nity school  projects.  "It  was  a  tremendous  job,"  says 
Principal  Curtis,  ''but  it  brought  wonderful  results  of 
co-operation  and  co-ordination  in  the  school.  It  has 
made  a  spirit  of  solidarity  such  as  we  have  never  had 
before.  As  a  result  of  this  success  we  are  to  arrange 
for  next  spring  a  similar  but  somewhat  different  afifair. 
In  connection  with  the  Greek  games,  each  girl  paid  for 
her  own  costume,  and  the  majority  of  the  five  hundred 
costiunes  were  made  at  the  school.  The  art  depart- 
ment designed  and  made  the  properties,  and  designed 
the  color  scheme  for  the  dresses.  The  manual-training 
department  contributed  much  work  on  the  manufacture 
of  properties.  The  study  of  Greek  history  and  mythol- 
ogy was  stimulated.  A  fine  spirit  of  co-operation  was 
engendered  among  the  girls  of  the  school,  and,  as  a 
result  of  their  training,  they  secured  a  very  unusual 
degree  of  skill  and  grace.  From  all  sides  we  have 
learned  that  this  was  the  most  artistic  performance  of 
its  kind  given  in  St.  Louis  in  many  a  day." 

Three  other  means  of  securing  the  right  kind  of  pub- 
licity should  be  emphasized,  not  that  they  exhaust,  by 
any  means,  the  possibilities,  but  they  should  be  empha- 
sized more  than  is  commonly  the  practice. 

First,  the  principal,  in  so  far  as  his  duties  will  permit, 
should  become  a  man  of  affairs  in  the  community.  He 
should  be  a  member  of  and  attend  the  meetings  of  com- 
mercial and  civic  organizations,  and  cultivate  acquain- 
tance with  the  business  men  of  the  city.  The  more  the 
principal  can  make  himself  felt  as  a  business  man,  the 


HIGH  SCHOOL  PUBLICITY  317 

greater  confidence  will  the  efficient  men  of  the  city  have 
in  him.  It  means  much  to  the  school  for  the  principal 
to  be  chairman  of  a  boys'  work  committee  of  the  Young 
Men's  Christian  Association  or  the  boys'  committee  of 
the  Rotary  Club. 

Second,  greater  advantage  should  be  taken  of  the 
school  exhibit.  Too  often  this  is  a  more  or  less  matter- 
of-fact  display  of  the  work  of  the  year.  It  should  be 
much  more  than  this.  The  school  exhibit  can  be  made 
the  school's  strongest  drawing  card  to  get  the  parents 
to  the  building.  In  the  preparation  of  the  exhibit  the 
work  of  such  departments  as  industrial  arts,  mechanical 
drawing,  arts  and  crafts  should  be  prepared  carefully 
and  with  the  view  of  showing  the  results  accomplished. 
But  what  of  the  work  in  history,  mathematics,  or  Latin  ? 
Is  there  no  way  to  prepare  for  the  proper  exhibition  of 
the  activities  of  these  classes?  By  careful  preparation 
and  specific  outline  of  the  work  to  be  done  on  the  eve- 
ning of  the  exhibit  the  work  of  these  classes  can  be 
shown  to  great  advantage  by  running  a  part  of  the 
school's  daily  schedule  of  classes.  Programmes  of  en- 
tertainment in  the  auditorium  always  make  a  hit  with 
the  public.  Another  feature  that  elicits  immediate  in- 
terest is  the  living  exhibit.  Boys  at  work  in  the  shops, 
girls  doing  projects  in  the  school  kitchen,  contests  in 
typewriting,  games  in  the  gymnasium,  and  sewing  con- 
tests not  only  emphasize  the  many  activities  of  the 
modern  school  but  arouse  keen  interest. 

Third,  there  is  some  reason  to  believe  that  the  school 
will  finally  use  the  motion  picture  as  a  means  of  pub- 
licity. A  few  attempts  are  being  made  through  the  U5e 
of  slides  to  advertise  evening  schools  or  other  similar 
activities.  One  city  made  use  of  the  theatres  to  con- 
vince the  public  that  it  needed  a  bond  issue  to  modern- 


318  HIGH  SCHOOL  ADMINISTRATION 

ize  school  buildings,  but  this  was  done  by  the  use  of 
slides  and  by  taking  advantage  in  a  way  of  the  people 
who  went  to  see  real  motion  pictures.  With  the  instal- 
lation of  motion-picture  machines  in  most  of  the  more 
modern  schools,  it  remains  now  to  film  the  school's  ac- 
tivities, games,  contests,  classroom  exercises,  when  we 
shall  have  one  of  the  most  inspiring  sources  of  building 
up  school  spirit  yet  found. 

Many  other  means  of  securing  publicity  are  used, 
each  with  its  many  variations.  The  city  paper,  the 
school  paper,  dramatic  productions,  debating  activities, 
band,  orchestra,  athletics,  student  manual  or  code  of 
ethics,  go-to-school  campaigns,  vocational  guidance,  and 
placement  bureaus  are  among  those  most  commonly 
mentioned. 

By  way  of  summary,  there  is  need  of  high  school  pub- 
licity to  create  a  greater  interest  in  the  work  of  the 
school  on  the  part  both  of  the  parents  and  pupils.  Cer- 
tain fundamental  points  in  securing  the  right  kind  of 
publicity  should  be  kept  in  mind. 

{a)  Publicity  must  be  a  natural  outgrowth  of  the 
school's  activities. 

(b)  It  must  be  based  upon  worthy  school  activities 
and  should  grow  out  of  the  activities  of  the  pupils  in  so 
far  as  possible. 

(c)  It  should  be  used  to  emphasize  the  classroom  ac- 
tivities of  the  school,  as  well  as  the  more  catchy  or  sen- 
sational features  of  the  modern  high  school. 

(d)  It  must  seek  for  the  real  advancement  of  the  best 
interests  of  the  school. 


EXPERIMENTALISM  IN  SECONDARY 
EDUCATION 

Measuring  the  work  of  the  school  has  become  preva- 
lent, and  it  may  be  said  that  it  is  row  the  fashion. 
Standard  tests  and  scales  have  been  devised  to  standard- 
ize school  work,  to  make  possible  accurate  statements 
and  comparisons,  and  to  draw  scientific  conclusions. 
The  statistical  method  has  been  treated  by  Thorndike 
and  Strayer,  Ayres,  Rugg,  and  others  very  exhaustively. 
Strayer  and  Norsworthy,  King,  Monroe,  Kelly,  Bowley, 
and  others  have  recently  made  the  statistical  method 
readable  and  of  use  to  the  rank  and  file  of  teachers  by 
treating  the  subject  in  a  more  or  less  elementary  man- 
ner. In  discussing  those  essential  parts  or  factors  of  the 
statistical  method  which  the  lajnman  must  use  in  the 
experimental  study  of  the  work  of  his  school  they  have 
taken  a  very  necessary  step  in  making  the  use  of  stand- 
ard tests  and  scales  general. 

The  purpose  of  this  chapter  is  not  to  attempt  a  re- 
statement of  the  elements  of  the  statistical  method,  ex- 
cept to  point  out  the  few  essential  things  about  which 
the  administrator  or  teacher  untrained  in  such  work 
must  know,  but  rather  to  emphasize  the  need  of  an 
experimental  attitude,  to  indicate  some  of  the  problems 
which  should  be  studied  experimentally,  and  the  need 
of  popular  presentation  of  the  results  of  experimental 
studies. 

The  report  of  the  Cleveland  Survey  on  Measuring  the 
Work  of  the  PubKc  Schools  is  made  with  the  use  of  but 
few  technical  terms  in  statistical  method.  The  use  of 
the  median  appears  first  in  this  report  on  page  97.     On 

319 


320  HIGH  SCHOOL  ADMINISTRATION 

page  98  some  dozen  lines  in  small  type  explain  the 
meaning  and  use  of  the  term  as  contrasted  with  the 
arithmetical  mean.  Mean  deviation  appears  first  in 
the  report  on  page  133,  and  is  not  explained  until  page 
262  is  reached,  when  another  dozen  lines  in  small  type 
are  found.  The  preparation  of  this  report  was  not  so 
much  dependent  upon  the  technical  mathematics  of  sta- 
tistical method,  although  more  of  it  was  used  than 
appears  in  the  report,  as  the  ability  to  sense  the  work 
that  should  be  measured,  the  knowledge  of  the  proper 
or  significant  preparation  of  tables  to  give  the  facts  a 
meaning,  and  the  popular  presentation  of  those  facts. 
The  facts  of  this  report  are  likewise  true  of  many  of  the 
studies  that  are  being  made  every  day.  The  lack  of  an 
intimate  knowledge  of  the  many  technical  phases  of 
statistics  need  not  keep  a  school  administrator  from 
measuring  the  work  of  his  system.  If  he  will  acquaint 
himself  with  the  few  essential  things,  such  as  the  me- 
dian, mean  deviation,  scoring,  and  preparation  of  tables, 
he  can  handle  practically  all  of  the  non-technical  prob- 
lems of  experimental  education. 

Immediately,  however,  it  should  be  stated  that  there 
are  many  fields  of  scientific  investigation  which  necessi- 
tate the  services  of  an  expert.  But  the  expert  in  a  sys- 
tem cannot  measure  all  of  the  school's  practices.  Even 
in  systems  with  Bureaus  of  Research  there  are  many 
non-technical  problems  which  should  properly  fall  to 
the  head  of  the  school  or  the  faculty.  It  is  within  the 
scope  of  this  chapter  to  set  some  of  these  problems. 

The  time  has  passed  when  one  needs  to  defend  the 
statistical  method  and  an  experimental  attitude  toward 
the  work  of  the  school.  The  time  is  here  to  quicken  the 
response  of  administrators  to  this  work.  An  experi- 
mental attitude  tends  to  make  a  science  of  our  profes- 


SECONDARY  EDUCATION  321 

sion  and  to  enlarge  the  service  of  the  school  to  the  com- 
munity. We  are  largely  controlled  in  school  admin- 
istration by  opinionated  educational  practice.  Every 
curriculum  of  study  in  our  secondary  schools  is  full  of 
opinion.  It  was  written  as  a  compromise  between  fac- 
tions in  the  faculty,  or  between  the  faculty  and  the  prin- 
cipal himself.  In  the  programme  of  studies  of  the  high 
school  there  is  usually  a  statement  limiting  the  number 
of  hours  of  work  which  a  pupil  may  carry,  but  no  one 
knows  whether  this  is  the  limit  that  should  be  set.  The 
point  is  that  administration  is  often  without  the  facts, 
and  hence  is  unscientific  and  a  sort  of  will-o'-the-wisp 
affair.  Opinionated  administration  not  only  prevents 
standards  in  the  school  system,  but  gives  the  public 
confidence  to  criticise  the  work  of  the  school. 

Doctor  Leonard  P.  Ayres,  Division  of  Education, 
Russell  Sage  Foundation,  in  the  Seventeenth  Year  Book 
of  the  National  Society  for  the  Study  of  Education  ex- 
presses clearly  the  emphasis  that  should  be  placed  upon 
the  scientific  method: 

** Science  in  education,"  he  says,  "is  not  a  body  of 
information,  but  a  method,  and  its  object  is  to  find  out 
and  to  learn  how.  By  its  aid  education  is  becoming  a 
profession.  Courses  of  study  are  being  adapted  to  the 
needs  of  children;  teaching  effort  and  supervisory  con- 
trol are  becoming  more  efficient.  .  .  .  Knowledge  is 
replacing  opinion,  and  evidence  is  supplanting  guess- 
work in  education,  as  in  every  other  field  of  human 
activity.  .  .  .  The  future  depends  upon  the  skill,  the 
wisdom,  and  the  sagacity  of  the  school  men  and  women 
of  America.  It  is  well  that  they  should  set  about  the 
task  of  enlarging,  perfecting,  and  carrying  forward  the 
scientific  movement  in  education,  for  the  Great  War  has 
marked  the  end  of  the  age  of  haphazard,  and  the  devel- 


322  HIGH   SCHOOL  ADMINISTRATION 

opments  of  coming  years  will  show  that  this  is  true  in 
education  as  in  every  other  organized  field  of  human 
endeavor." 

The  war  has  greatly  emphasized  the  importance  of 
the  pubUc  schools  in  a  democracy,  but  it  placed  our 
educational  theories  and  practices  in  the  balance.  It 
brought  into  question  content  of  courses,  the  efficiency 
of  vocational  programmes,  physical  fitness,  the  teaching 
of  citizenship,  the  holding  power  of  the  school — in 
short,  the  ultimate  success  of  the  pubHc  school  in  the 
largest  sense.  With  emphasis  focussed  upon  these 
points,  the  war  has  demonstrated  that  the  school  must 
henceforth  be  organized  and  administered  upon  a  scien- 
tific basis.  Discontent  can  best  be  quieted  by  measured 
results,  and  our  proposed  reconstruction  must  have  a 
basis  in  fact  and  not  opinion. 

In  the  field  of  secondary  education  we  are  entering 
upon  a  period  of  reorganization.  The  junior  high  school 
is  an  established  fact,  and  the  six- three-three  plan  is 
rapidly  supplanting  the  old  traditional  eight-four  plan. 
This  reorganization  is  not  only  a  fertile  field  for  the 
scientific  method,  but  one  that  must  be  entered.  Just 
what  in  point  of  actual  fact  does  the  junior  high  school 
do  for  society  that  was  not  done  before?  In  what  re- 
spects does  it  increase  the  efficiency  of  the  school  sys- 
tem ?  Can  the  work  done  by  the  regular  four-year  high 
school  be  done  better  by  reorganizing  secondary  educa- 
tion? Just  what  are  the  facts  in  regard  to  the  holding 
power  of  the  junior-senior  high  school  arrangement? 
In  matters  of  this  kind  shall  we  continue  to  be  domi- 
nated merely  by  our  convictions,  and  shall  we  continue 
to  dominate  public  opinion  by  the  same  means,  or  shall 
we  base  our  educational  practice  and  theory  upon 
facts?     Shall  we  longer  accept  an  opinionated  profes- 


SECONDARY  EDUCATION  323 

sion,  or  shall  we  help  make  it  a  science  by  insisting  upon 
the  application  of  the  yard-stick  ? 

What  fields  or  practices  may  be  surveyed  by  the  ad- 
ministrator who  is  not  a  skilled  statistician  or  measure- 
ment expert,  but  who  knows  how  to  control  the  factors 
involved,  arrange  his  facts  properly,  and  interpret  them  ? 
A  few  may  be  suggested,  but  other  opportunities  and 
problems  will  be  recognized  by  those  who  have  the  ex- 
perimental attitude.  The  matter  of  first  importance  is 
to  secure  the  attitude. 

First,  there  is  the  whole  field  of  curriculum  building. 
It  should  no  longer  be  a  scissors-and-paste  process  to 
build  the  curriculums  for  the  school.  The  school's  cur- 
riculum policy  should  grow  out  of  a  study  of  the  facts 
of  pupil  population,  a  study  of  the  community,  the 
trades  and  professions  and  the  number  entering  them. 
After  determining  upon  the  curriculums  to  be  offered, 
who  knows  for  a  certainty  what  subjects  should  go  into 
them?  Who  knows  in  what  year  the  subjects  should 
come?  What  so-called  high  school  subjects  should  go 
down  into  the  junior  high  school  ? 

In  administering  the  school's  curriculums,  how  may 
we  determine  upon  the  amount  of  work  a  pupil  should 
carry  from  semester  to  semester?  Who  knows  how 
many  hours  of  work  are  best  for  the  pupil?  Should 
he  carry  three,  four,  or  five  subjects  each  semester? 
Should  not  some  curriculums  properly  require  a  longer 
time  for  completion  than  others  ? 

One  of  the  above  questions  implies  the  relation  be- 
tween the  curriculum  and  the  end  or  object  for  which  it 
was  set  up.  How  may  one  know  whether  the  curricu- 
lum concerned  is  the  best  preparation  for  the  work  the 
pupil  has  in  mind?  In  this  same  connection  how  may 
one  determine  whether  that  curriculum  is  fulfilling  its 


324  HIGH  SCHOOL  ADMINISTRATION 

purpose?  Is  there  any  correlation  between  the  cur- 
riculum followed  and  the  trade  or  profession  entered  by 
the  pupil  ? 

Second,  there  is  the  field  of  content  of  courses  and 
elimination  of  waste  in  subject-matter.  Undoubtedly, 
this  field  will  remain  one  of  controversy  until  experi- 
mental education  proves  something.  It  is  a  serious 
matter  to  have  a  pupil  spend  one  year  in  commercial 
arithmetic,  for  example,  if  sufficient  proficiency  can  be 
gained  in  one  semester.  Especially  is  this  important 
when  we  are  entering  upon  the  organization  of  junior 
high  school  courses.  We  are  constantly  hearing  that 
the  subject-matter  and  treatment  of  it  should  be  differ- 
ent in  the  junior  high  school  from  that  in  the  senior 
high  school.  In  what  respects  should  it  differ  ?  And  if 
it  should  differ,  how  are  we  to  determine  upon  this  new 
organization  and  treatment? 

Hope  lies  in  experimental  education.  Ayres  has 
shown  by  experiment,  for  example,  how  we  might  save 
time  and  thus  eliminate  waste  in  spelling.  This  can  be 
done  in  other  subjects.  In  fact,  minimal  essentials  in 
high  school  subjects  are  being  determined  by  experiment. 

These  two  fields  may  seem  overwhelmingly  large,  but 
if  constructive  work  is  done  in  them,  at  present  it  must 
be  done  in  most  school  systems  by  or  under  the  leader- 
ship of  the  secondary-school  administrator.  The  effi- 
ciency expert,  if  the  system  has  ©ne,  is  often  too  busy 
giving  tests  in  the  elementary  schools.  If  the  average 
administrator  cannot  conduct  large  control  experiments 
in  these  fields  he  can  at  least  make  a  beginning.  The 
attitude  is  worth  while. 

A  third  field  covers  the  whole  range  of  teachers' 
marks,  pupil  progress,  promotions,  failures,  eliminations, 
repeaters,  and  allied  topics.     A  study  of  these  topics 


SECONDARY  EDUCATION  325 

may  result  in  marked  changes  in  methods  of  instruction 
and  in  administration. 

In  one  high  school  a  study  was  made,  for  example,  of 
fifty-seven  pupils  who  failed  of  promotion  in  beginning 
German.  These  pupils  were  followed  through  their 
course  in  school  until  they  either  made  their  credit  in 
German  or  dropped  out.  In  this  particular  school  a 
foreign  language  was  required  for  graduation,  and  due 
to  certain  local  conditions  the  pupils  who  began  German 
repeated  it  if  they  failed  of  promotion.  The  second 
semester  revealed  some  astonishing  facts.  Of  the  fifty- 
seven  who  had  failed  the  previous  semester,  all  would 
have  been  repeaters  for  the  first  time  had  they  remained 
in  school.  Fourteen  had  withdrawn,  and  of  the  forty- 
three  who  remained  only  five  made  their  credits.  In 
the  third  semester,  of  the  thirty-eight  only  nineteen 
were  in  school,  and  of  these  nineteen,  three  made  their 
credits.  At  the  end  of  the  fourth  semester,  one  of  the 
original  fifty-seven  was  still  in  school,  and  he  made  his 
credit.  There  had  been  a  total  of  nine  credits  made  in 
German  by  those  fifty-seven  pupils  in  four  semesters, 
and  all  but  one  had  withdrawn.  This  is  a  concrete  ex- 
ample of  what  happened  in  one  school.  It  is  conceded 
that  failure  is  conducive  to  elimination,  but  just  what 
is  happening  in  any  particular  school  ?  A  study  of  this 
kind  will  convince  a  faculty  or  the  public  that  a  better 
adjustment  of  the  work  to  the  pupil  would  be  a  highly 
profitable  piece  of  social  work. 

From  a  slightly  different  angle  the  administrator  may 
secure  a  bird's-eye  view  of  this  problem  of  failures  and 
elimination.  It  would  be  interesting  and  also  profit- 
able to  follow  the  pupils  who  entered  the  first  year  of 
the  school  through  the  school  until  they  had  either  with- 
drawn or  graduated.     Or,  again,  he  may  secure  this 


326  HIGH  SCHOOL  ADMINISTRATION 

information  by  figuring  the  per  cent  of  promotions  in 
the  classes,  using  the  number  enrolled  at  the  beginning 
as  the  base,  provided  he  follows  this  up  with  a  study  of 
the  repeaters.  This  process  will  reveal  a  tremendous 
waste.  It  should  be  understood  that  to  secure  these 
data  and  not  follow  them  up  corresponds  to  the  doctor 
who  diagnoses  a  case  but  gives  no  medicine. 

There  should  be  an  age-grade  table  prepared  each 
semester,  and  this  should  be  followed  up  by  making  a 
definite  study  especially  of  the  retarded  boys.  An  age- 
grade  table  of  the  secondary  school  reveals  a  tre- 
mendous amount  of  retardation  among  boys  in  the  9th 
and  loth  grades.  During  the  nth  and  12th  grades 
there  is  scarcely  more  retardation  among  boys  than  girls. 
These  facts  make  it  very  apparent  that  there  is  urgent 
need  of  better  adaptation  of  work  to  boys,  and  proba- 
bly there  should  be  provided  some  practical  short 
courses  which  certain  boys  might  well  be  encouraged  to 
take. 

Supplementing  the  age-grade  table  and  a  general 
study  of  failures  and  elimination,  it  will  be  found  profit- 
able to  compare  the  per  cent  of  failures  by  grades  made 
by  boys  with  that  made  by  girls  in  the  various  subjects 
of  the  curriculum.  This  comparison  will  add  new  em- 
phasis to  the  need  of  adjusting  the  curriculums  of  study 
to  the  pupils. 

Such  a  study  in  one  large  high  school  is  given  in 
Tables  I,  II,  and  III. 

With  the  advent  of  weighted  credit  schemes,  the  im- 
portance of  studying  teachers'  marks  has  been  greatly 
emphasized.  Undoubtedly,  there  is  something  wrong 
with  our  yard-stick  when  two  teachers  of  the  same  sub- 
ject, after  marking  500  to  1,000  pupils,  will  vary  greatly 
in  their  distribution  of  marks.     It  is  not  an  exaggeration 


SECONDARY  EDUCATION 


327 


TABLE  I 

A  COMPARISON  OF  THE  PER  CENT  OF  FAILURES  OF  BOYS  AND  GIRLS 
IN   THE   VARIOUS   SUBJECTS   OFFERED   IN   THE   SCHOOL 


SUBJECT 


PER   CENT   OF 
BOYS    FAILING 


PER   CENT   OF 
GIRLS   FAILING 


Mathematics 

Latin 

German 

English 

Commercial 

Science 

History 

Industrial  and  household  arts 


23 
31 
23 

ID 
10 

8 
4 
5 


23 
12 

5 
4 
7 
3 
2 
o 


TABLE  II 

A  COMPARISON  OF  THE  FAILURES  OF    BOYS  AND  GIRLS  IN  FIRST-YEAR 

SUBJECTS 


PEE  CENT  OF 
BOYS  FAILING 


PER   CENT  OF 
GIRLS  FAILING 


Mathematics 

Latin 

German 

English 

Commercial 

Science 

History 

Industrial  and  household  arts 


31 
41 
35 
12 
Not  offered 
II 
8 
10 


24 
17 

3 

5 
Not  offered 

3 
6 


to  say  that  in  the  absence  of  a  policy  on  this  point,  one 
teacher  may  fail  three  times  as  many  pupils  as  another 
teacher  in  the  same  department,  or  one  may  give  five 
times  as  many  marks  of  90  per  cent  or  above  as  the 
other.  In  one  school  the  teachers'  marks  were  charted 
semester  by  semester,  and  after  each  teacher  had  marked 
approximately  700  pupils  in  a  period  of  two  and  one- 


328 


HIGH  SCHOOL  ADMINISTRATION 


TABLE  HI 

A   COMPARISON    OF    THE   FAILURES    OF    BOYS   AND   GIRLS    IN    SECOND, 
THIRD,   AND   FOURTH   YEAR   SUBJECTS 


SlJBJECr 

Mathematics 

Latin 

German 

English 

Commercial 

Science 

History 

Industrial  and  household  arts 


PER  CENT  OF 
BOYS  FAILING 


PER  CENT  OF 
GIRLS  FAILING 


II 

21 
13 

8 

ID 

5 

2 
2 


23 

10 

10 

2 

7 
3 
o 
o 


half  years  certain  facts  were  clearly  evident.  The  exact 
records  which  follow  of  two  teachers  of  the  same  Eng- 
lish department  are  typical. 


BELOW  65  65-69  70-74  75-79  80-84  85-89  9a94  95-100 


Teacher  A.    Uniformly  a  high  marker.    Passing  mark  75%. 


SECONDARY  EDUCATION 


329 


40;l 


70-74  75-79  80-84  85-89  90-94  93-IOO 


Teacher  B.     Uniformly  a  low  marker.     Passing  mark  75%. 


It  is  an  interesting  experiment  to  have  the  faculty- 
mark  an  examination  paper,  say  in  commercial  arithme- 
tic and  in  English  composition.  In  one  school,  after 
the  faculty  had  been  given  identical  instructions  and 
duplicate  copies  of  the  papers  to  be  marked,  it  was 
found  that  there  was  a  variation  of  40  per  cent  in  mark- 
ing an  arithmetic  paper,  and  30  per  cent  in  marking 
a  composition.  Some  teachers  would  have  failed  the 
pupils  in  question,  while  others  would  have  given  them 
excess  credit  under  some  weighted  credit  schemes.  The 
marks  given  by  twenty-nine  members  of  one  faculty 
in  marking  an  arithmetic  paper  follows  in  graphical 
form  on  page  330. 

Unquestionably  such  facts  are  duplicated  in  many 
schools,  and  thus  the  real  purposes  of  a  weighted  credit 
scheme  may  be  defeated.  Under  such  conditions  of 
marking  pupils  a  weighted  credit  scheme  exaggerates 


330 


HIGH  SCHOOL  ADMINISTRATION 


The  passing  mark  is  75%. 


the  importance  of  choosing  "snap"  courses  and  easy 
teachers.  It  becomes  a  difficult  matter  to  get  pupils 
into  the  classes  of  some  teachers,  and  likewise  difl5cult 
to  keep  them  out  of  those  of  others.  A  study  of  marks 
should  be  followed  by  a  constructive  attempt  to  adjust 
these  problems.  A  system  of  marking  in  which  the 
marks  represent  distinguishable  steps  of  merit  should 
follow  such  studies,  as  should  also  a  schematic  distribu- 
tion of  marks  that  will  make  for  greater  uniformity 
among  teachers. 

A  study  related  to  all  of  these  deals  with  the  progress 
through  the  school  of  particular  pupil  groups,  organized 
on  the  basis  of  ability.  Especially  is  this  important 
with  the  organization  of  the  junior  high  school.  Defi- 
nite provision  in  all  possible  cases  will  be  made  for  dif- 
ferences in  ability  in  the  junior  high  school,  and  the 
progress  of  each  group  should  be  studied  carefully,  not 


SECONDARY  EDUCATION  331 

only  in  that  school,  but  also  in  the  senior  high  school. 
In  one  large  city  system  a  special  class  is  organized  in  one 
of  the  junior  high  schools.  This  class  is  prepared  for  the 
high  school  one  full  semester  before  the  regular  pupils. 
A  comparative  study  of  pupil  groups  might  throw  fur- 
ther light  on  the  problem  of  the  classification  of  pupils. 

A  fourth  field  has  to  do  with  the  use  of  standard  tests 
and  scales.  As  rapidly  as  these  are  developed  they 
should  be  used  in  the  administration  of  the  school. 
With  the  definite  organization  of  the  junior  high  school, 
many  of  these  tests  and  scales  can  be  used  in  the  scien- 
tific building  of  the  programme  of  studies,  particularly 
in  determining  curriculums,  subject-matter,  and  time 
allotment.  At  the  present  time  we  are  in  the  midst  of 
a  discussion  as  to  the  time  element  and  treatment  of 
subject  material  in  junior  high  school  mathematics. 
Again,  there  is  much  room  for  further  experimentation 
in  the  organization  and  administration  of  commercial, 
household  arts,  and  industrial  branches  in  the  junior 
high  school.  These  are  two  outstanding  examples  of 
the  urgent  need  of  science  in  education,  and  it  is  to  be 
hoped  that  before  the  organization  of  the  junior  high 
school  becomes  more  or  less  traditional,  a  constructive 
attempt  will  be  made  to  formulate  principles  baafed 
upon  evidence  rather  than  debate. 

Already  many  tests  and  scales  are  available  for  use 
in  secondary  schools.  There  are  now  some  eighty-four 
standardized  tests  for  use  in  the  elementary  school, 
many  of  which  can  be  used  profitably  in  the  junior  high 
school.  Many  of  them  can  become  the  basis  of  pro- 
motion to  the  junior  high  school  and  the  special  classi- 
fication of  junior  high  school  pupils.  To  some  extent 
they  may  become  the  basis  of  promotion  to  the  senior 
high  school.     There  are  about  twenty-five  standardized 


332  raOH  SCHOOL  ADMINISTRATION 

tests  for  use  in  the  secondary  school.  Algebra,  drawing, 
foreign  languages,  geometry,  history,  physical  education, 
and  physics  are  included  in  the  list  of  subjects.^  There 
is  reason  to  hope  that  this  list  will  be  extended  and 
the  existing  tests  further  refined. 

Experimentation  in  algebra  has  resulted  in  som.e  ex- 
cellent tests.  Rugg  and  Clark  have  developed  a  series  of 
sixteen  tests  covering  ninth-year  work  in  algebra.  Pro- 
fessor Thomas  H.  Briggs  is  developing  a  series  of  stand- 
ardized compositions  for  use  in  all  grades,  from  ninth  to 
twelfth.  In  this  work  an  efifort  is  being  made  to  set 
limits  which  may  reasonably  represent  the  range  by 
grades  in  theme  writing.  Undoubtedly  this  marks  the 
beginning  of  an  attempt  to  agree  upon  limits  which  shall 
be  accepted  as  the  basis  of  progress  through  school.  It 
is  a  matter  of  more  than  passing  interest  that  in  some 
schools  the  standard  of  attainment  for  promotion  from 
iith-grade  composition  to  that  of  the  12  th  grade  is 
not  as  high  as  that  of  promotion  in  other  schools  from 
the  9th  to  loth  grade.  Briggs,  in  developing  his  scale, 
discovered  that  the  theme  rated  as  the  poorest  that 
could  be  accepted  in  i2th-grade  work  in  one  school  was 
sometimes  not  as  good  as  the  theme  rated  poorest  that 
could  be  accepted  in  pth-grade  work  in  another  school. 
In  other  words,  it  was  apparent  that  no  one  knew 
exactly  what  should  be  required  of  a  9th,  loth,  or  nth 
year  pupil  in  composition,  and  that  as  among  schools 
there  were  no  progressive  standards  of  attainment. 
When  the  i2th-grade  themes  which  had  been  rated  best 
by  the  English  teachers  of  the  schools  sending  them  in 
were  rated  according  to  a  scale,  it  was  found  that  they 
ranged  in  merit  from  scarcely  good  enough  to  be  con- 

^Chap.  VII,  Seventeeth  Year  Book,  by  Monroe;  also  chap.  XIII, 
Seventeenth  Year  Book,  by  Bryner. 


SECONDARY  EDUCATION  333 

sidered  acceptable  as  gth-grade  themes  to  a  point  on  the 
scale  comparable  with  university  work. 

This  one  piece  of  work  demonstrates  clearly  and 
forcibly  the  fact  that  standardized  tests  and  scales  are 
needed  as  a  means  of  testing  the  accomplishment  of 
pupils  and  rating  them  more  justly.  Much  of  the  lack 
of  standards  of  attainment  and  progress  toward  progres- 
sive standards  is  due  to  the  inability  of  teachers  to 
measure  merit  without  some  means  of  checking  their 
judgment.  This  work  in  English  composition  opens  up 
a  new  field  for  experiment  in  secondary  education.  It 
reveals  the  possible  need  of  similar  experimental  work 
in  other  branches  of  study. 

The  use  of  tests  and  scales  relates  closely  to  the  effi- 
ciency of  classroom  methods.  Much  progress  has  been 
made  in  analyzing  the  elements  entering  into  efficiency 
in  teaching  and  in  developing  uniform  rating  schemes. 
The  Boyce  score  card,  or  a  variation  of  it,  represents 
progress  in  rating  teacher  efficiency,  but  the  difficulty  in 
administering  such  rating  schemes  is  that  they  call 
largely  for  opinion  on  the  part  of  the  supervisor.  There 
is  room  for  great  variation  in  marking  teachers  even 
with  such  schemes.  One  supervisor  may  rate  a  teacher 
high  with  such  a  scale,  while  another  may  rate  her  low. 
It  then  resolves  itself  into  a  debate  as  to  whose  judg- 
ment is  better,  and  the  teacher  concludes,  rightly,  that 
such  rating  schemes  are  just  so  much  added  "red  tape." 
In  many  instances  the  thing  or  things  that  make  a 
teacher  stand  out  in  her  work  lie  beyond  the  scope  of  a 
scale. 

It  should  not  be  concluded  that  this  is  an  argument 
against  developing  scales  for  rating  teachers.  Undoubt- 
edly there  should  be  such  scales,  but  as  rapidly  as  pos- 
sible the  rating  should  be  based  upon  elements  which 


334  HIGH  SCHOOL  ADMINISTRATION 

can  be  measured.  It  probably  will  never  be  possible  to 
remove  the  personal  element  in  rating  teachers,  but 
there  is  evidence  to  believe  that  facts  of  classroom  work 
may  supplant  the  present  necessity  of  basing  efficiency 
upon  personal  opinion. 

In  the  future  it  will  be  perfectly  proper  to  rate  the 
teacher  in  terms  of  results.  In  a  certain  school  system 
in  Massachusetts  the  superintendent  had  for  some  time 
questioned  the  efficiency  of  the  penmanship  supervisor, 
but  he  did  not  have  definite  data.  It  was  largely  a 
matter  of  guess.  He  tested  all  the  grades  by  use  of  the 
Thomdike  scale  and  found  that  the  results  confirmed  his 
opinion.  He  called  in  the  supervisor  and  asked  that 
there  be  some  definite  improvement  the  following  year. 
With  the  proper  use  of  the  scale  the  supervisor  did  show 
excellent  results  and  he  still  retains  his  position.  The 
relative  amount  of  teacher  activity  in  conducting  the 
class  is  no  longer  a  matter  of  opinion.  The  question  as 
a  measure  of  efficiency  has  been  admirably  handled  by 
Doctor  Romiett  Stevens.  The  general  type  of  recita- 
tion is  no  longer  a  question  for  debate.  These  points 
represent  some  of  the  items  of  measuring  teaching  effi- 
ciency in  which  facts  may  be  substituted  for  opinion. 
Others  will  suggest  themselves. 

Finally,  the  cost  of  education  should  be  made  the  sub- 
ject of  scientific  investigation.  We  should  know  what 
it  costs  the  community  to  secure  the  results  which  we 
claim  for  the  school.  This  phase  of  investigation  has 
been  overworked  in  view  of  the  use  made  of  it  in  alter- 
ing the  practices  of  the  administration.  We  should  not 
forget  that  we  know  at  the  end  of  the  year  how  much  it 
costs  to  run  the  system.  Relatively  it  is  unimportant 
to  know  simply  that  one  thousand  hours  of  instruction  in 
the  high  school  cost  so  many  dollars.     It  is  highly  im- 


SECONDARY  EDUCATION  335 

portant  to  know  the  relative  amounts  spent  in  the 
grades  and  high  school  for  instruction  and  all  other 
expenses  combined.  We  should  not  lose  sight  of  the 
fact  that  cost  of  education  should  be  confined  largely  to 
a  comparative  study  of  the  items  of  expense  in  the  sys- 
tem. Up  to  the  present  time  cost  of  instruction  has 
been  the  principal  cost  item  studied  in  secondary  educa- 
tion, but  a  study  of  cost  should  include  every  item  of 
expenditure.  The  public  is  interested  in  totals.  The 
administrator  should,  of  course,  know  the  per  pupil  cost, 
and  this  knowledge  should  be  utilized  in  equalizing 
great  discrepancies  in  securing  equivalent  results  in  the 
system.  Further  than  this,  cost  of  instruction  and  cost 
of  education,  except  in  so  far  as  total  cost  is  concerned, 
mean  little  and  probably  will  be  emphasized  much  less 
in  the  future.  Rather,  cost  should  include  scientific 
budget  making  and  an  adjustment  of  expenditures  as 
among  the  items  included. 

The  fields  mentioned  for  investigation  in  this  chapter 
are  merely  suggestive,  the  important  point  being  that 
experiment  in  the  administration  and  supervision  of  the 
school  should  be  encouraged  in  every  possible  way. 
Within  these  fields  there  are  opportunities  without  end 
for  experimentation.  These  will  suggest  themselves  to 
those  who  have  the  experimental  attitude. 

Those  not  familiar  with  the  statistical  method  will 
experience  difficulty  in  getting  the  data  collected  ar- 
ranged intelligibly.  It  is  highly  important  that  they 
understand  the  significance  of  arranging  the  material  in 
such  manner  as  to  make  it  possible  to  interpret  results. 
Scoring  and  tabulating  often  present  real  difiiculties. 
Assistance,  however,  can  be  secured  of  many  schools  of 
education,  and  frequently  the  technical  part  of  the 
work  can  be  turned  over  to  an  expert. 


336  HIGH  SCHOOL  ADMINISTRATION 

Much  of  the  success  of  experiment  in  education  de- 
pends on  the  character  of  a  report.  Reports  based 
upon  statistical  work  must  be  simple  and  non-technical 
in  character,  and  be  designed  to  carry  weight  without 
extensive  explanation.  In  other  words,  until  the  teach- 
ing profession  generally  becomes  famihar  with  the  tech- 
nical phases  of  measurement,  the  expert  and  the  gen- 
eral administrator  must  popularize  the  statistical  method 
in  education  through  simplicity  and  the  constant  use  of 
the  results  with  the  teaching  force  and  the  community. 


NEW   CONCEPTION  OF  THE   PRINCIPALSHIP 

There  is  an  indefiniteness  about  the  duties  of  the  high 
school  principal  that  is  not  equalled  elsewhere  in  our 
public-school  system.  To  be  sure,  the  clerical  phases  of 
high  school  administration  are  well  understood,  as  a 
matter  of  necessity,  but  the  higher  and  more  vital  phases 
of  the  principal's  duties  are,  as  yet,  indefinitely  formu- 
lated. This  indefiniteness  is  a  reassuring  sign  that  we 
are  entering  upon  a  new  era  in  high  school  administra- 
tion. It  is  undoubtedly  an  indication  that  we  are  leav- 
ing behind  that  conception  of  the  high  school  principal- 
ship  that  finds  its  highest  expression  in  such  clerical 
duties  as  adjusting  pupils'  programmes,  in  receiving  and 
passing  upon  all  excuses  for  absence,  in  the  more  or  less 
useless  shuffling  of  cards  and  writing  of  names,  in  answer- 
ing the  telephone  and  the  million  relatively  unimportant 
questions  arising  from  day  to  day,  and  finally  in  check- 
ing up  and  signing  the  janitors'  pay-roll.  In  fact,  in 
our  better  schools,  the  teachers  are  taking  exception  to 
the  principal  who  spends  his  time  in  clerical  work,  and 
are  complaining  against  the  lack  of  educational  leader- 
ship in  the  faculty.  On  the  other  hand,  there  are  still 
some  teachers  and  principals,  too,  who  regard  the  work 
of  the  principal  as  largely  clerical.  They  look  upon 
administration  as  something  mechanical,  a  sort  of  rou- 
tine of  devices,  a  manipulation  of  filing  schemes,  a 
shuffling  of  cards. 

Many  principals  need  conversion  on  this  point.  They 
cannot  stand  it  to  be  removed  from  the  personal  contact 
with  pupils,  arising  from  the  adjustment  of  the  size  of 

337 


338  HIGH  SCHOOL   ADMINISTRATION 

classes,  changes  in  pupils'  programmes,  or  granting  per- 
mission for  early  dismissal  on  account  of  work.  They 
look  to  these  necessary  but  comparatively  trivial  mat- 
ters to  establish  their  authority  in  the  school.  They 
think  they  must  be  seen  in  action  in  these  mere  skir- 
mishes in  administration.  What  they  need  is  the  ability 
to  visualize  a  General  Foch.  It  is  not  a  sufficient  de- 
fense to  say  that  these  things  bring  the  principal  into 
actual  contact  with  the  pupils.  There  are  other  oppor- 
tunities of  a  more  vital  kind  that  enable  him  to  display 
real  leadership. 

In  any  discussion  of  the  principalship  it  must  be 
understood  that  efficiency  in  handling  the  clerical  work 
of  the  office  is  a  matter  of  first  importance  and  one  that 
cannot  be  neglected.  The  system  of  records  and  re- 
ports must  be  complete  and  accurate.  The  method  of 
reporting  and  checking  absence  and  tardiness  must  be 
simple  and  yet  effective.  The  making  of  the  schedule 
of  recitations,  adjustment  of  sizes  of  classes,  necessary 
changes  in  teachers'  and  pupils'  programmes,  issuing 
work  permits,  and  the  Uke,  should  be  systematized  until 
these  things  take  up  the  minimum  amount  of  time. 

It  is  a  matter  of  highest  importance  that  the  work  of 
opening  school  be  completed  quickly.  In  this  respect 
there  is  a  wide  difference  among  schools.  In  some 
schools  it  takes  two  or  three  weeks  to  get  down  to  real 
classroom  work;  in  others,  class  work  of  a  vital  kind  is 
begun  on  the  second  or  third  day.  The  writer  person- 
ally knows  of  a  school  in  which  pupils  reported  for 
enrolment  in  classes  on  Monday,  the  opening  day,  and 
then  were  told  not  to  return  until  Friday.  On  Friday 
ten-minute  periods  were  run  and  work  did  not  begin 
until  the  middle  of  the  second  week.  In  another  school 
some  classes  have  been  known  to  run  for  six  weeks,  with 


NEW  CONCEPTION  OF  THE  PRINCIPALSHIP    339 

an  enrolment  of  fifty  or  sixty,  because  the  principal  in- 
sisted that  he  alone  should  make  all  adjustments  in 
pupils'  programmes.  In  many  individual  instances 
these  adjustments  meant  no  more  than  assigning  the 
pupUs  to  a  different  study  period.  Contrast  this  type 
of  organization  with  one  that  has  the  school  actually 
under  way  on  Tuesday  of  the  first  week,  with  pupils 
preparing  lessons  in  earnest  for  the  next  day's  work. 
There  is  real  technic  in  planning  for  the  opening  day 
of  school  and  in  getting  the  machinery  under  way 
promptly.  The  principal  should  make  a  study  of  these 
purely  organization  problems  and  refine  his  office  meth- 
ods until  the  efficiency,  or  standard  of  efficiency,  is 
fairly  comparable  with  that  of  the  best-organized  offices 
in  the  commercial  world.  This  calls  for  adequate  cleri- 
cal help,  a  high  degree  of  division  of  labor,  and  a  wise 
and  judicious  assignment  of  duties  to  members  of  the 
faculty  who  are  especially  qualified  for  the  particular 
service  to  be  rendered. 

Important  as  this  phase  of  administration  is,  and  as 
much  attention  as  it  warrants,  there  are  higher  and 
more  spiritual  sides  which,  when  acted  upon,  will  con- 
stitute the  real  duties  of  the  high  school  principal. 

Doctor  Charles  Hughes  Johnston,  in  addressing  the 
North  Central  Association,  March  23,  191 7,  expressed 
so  clearly  the  trend  in  high  school  administration  that 
his  words  are  quoted  in  full.  "The  high  school,"  he 
said,  "is  no  longer  an  assemblage  of  many  tutoring  or 
teaching  units  or  classrooms.  It  is  an  institution.  It 
begins  to  have  an  institutional  consciousness— even  con- 
science. Pupil  achievement,  real  public  high  school  ed- 
ucation in  a  democracy,  depends  much  upon  proper 
school  organization,  administration,  and  supervision. 
Proper  and  skilful  direction  of  such  an  institution  is  an 


340  HIGH  SCHOOL  ADMINISTRATION 

essential  means  of  providing  the  environment  necessary 
for  real  success  in  secondary  education." 

On  the  spiritual  side  he  goes  still  deeper  into  the 
new  conception  of  the  high  school  principalship.  "There 
is,"  he  says,  "an  unfortunate  distinction  between  ad- 
ministration and  teaching.  This  distinction  is  based 
upon  the  view  that  administration  is  mechanical,  a  sort 
of  routine  use  of  devices  and  the  employment  of  practi- 
cal temporary  adjustments  and  the  consumption  of  time 
in  clerical  occupation  and  more  or  less  futile  or  tempo- 
rarily necessary  pupil,  teacher,  and  parent  conferences; 
while  real  teaching  is  both  more  spiritual  and  more  truly 
educational.  .  .  .  There  is  real  technic  in  organizing 
and  managing  student  activities,  in  creating  an  esprit 
de  corps  in  the  school,  ...  in  making  a  system  of 
educational  guidance  a  real  part  of  the  school's  every- 
day work,  in  making  athletics  democratic,  moral,  and 
educational.  .  .  .  School  management  in  this  higher 
and  more  spiritual  sense  implies  technic,  implies  minimal 
standards  of  administration,  implies  peculiar  profes- 
sional preparation  and  personal  fitness  of  the  adminis- 
trators, implies  a  high  degree  of  co-operation  of  all  the 
forces  of  the  school." 

This  is  a  significant  statement  of  a  constructive 
thinker.  When  we  objectively  formulate  the  spirit  of 
these  words,  we  shall  pass  from  the  mere  standardiza- 
tion of  the  routine  and  clerical  phases  of  the  principal- 
ship  to  the  refinement  of  the  more  vital  means  by  which 
the  modern  high  school  fulfils  its  highest  purposes  in  a 
democracy. 

In  this  higher  professional  sense  there  are  two  essen- 
tial factors  which  determine  what  may  be  called  the 
spirit  of  the  administration,  and  affect  very  materially 
the  morale  of  the  school. 


NEW  CONCEPTION  OF  THE  PRINCIPALSHIP    341 

The  first  of  these  has  to  do  with  the  co-operation  of 
the  faculty  (or  the  lack  of  it)  in  the  solution  of  the  insti- 
tutional problems  of  the  school;  the  second  with  the 
attitude  toward  the  social  problems  arising  in  the  stu- 
dent body.  There  can,  in  the  near  future,  be  no  dodg- 
ing of  these  two  issues  in  high  school  administration. 
Accrediting  agencies  will,  without  doubt,  enter  upon 
this  phase  of  standardizing  our  administrative  practices. 

Is  the  school  administered  in  such  a  way  that  the 
faculty  can  participate  in  the  solution  of  administrative 
problems  ?  Is  the  abiHty  of  this  or  that  member  of  the 
faculty  allowed  to  emerge,  or  is  it  being  continually 
blocked?  Are  the  teachers  encouraged  to  discuss  the 
problems  of  the  school  and  offer  suggestions?  Are  they 
organized  into  committees  to  make  it  certain  that  they 
will  contribute  to  the  institutional  consciousness  of  the 
school?  Or  is  the  administration  of  the  type  which 
makes  it  clear  to  teachers  that  they  may  occasionally  be 
called  upon  to  check  the  "a  priori"  conclusions  of  the 
principal,  but  that  their  main  duty  is  to  teach  and  take 
orders  ?  Is  the  administration  of  that  type  which  seeks 
for  and  results  in  the  glorification  of  the  head  master? 
In  a  democracy  there  is  a  world  of  difference  in  these 
two  suggested  types.  The  one  results  in  the  democra- 
tization of  the  faculty  that  has  always  resented  auto- 
cratic methods  in  administration;  the  other  in  a  dead- 
ening of  every  spark  of  real  interest  in  the  institutional 
problems  of  the  school. 

There  is  no  better  example  of  democracy  and  great- 
ness in  administration  to  be  found  than  that  in  Teachers 
College,  Columbia  University.  Dean  Russell  has,  from 
the  beginning,  organized  his  faculty  on  a  co-operative 
basis.  He  has  not  only  permitted  but  has  encouraged 
the  men  on  that  faculty  to  bring  their  full  genius  to 


342  HIGH  SCHOOL  ADMINISTRATION 

bear  on  the  solution  of  the  problems  of  the  institution. 
More  than  this,  he  has  encouraged  growth  in  his  faculty. 
Under  this  leadership  the  ability  of  the  able  teachers 
has  emerged.  To-day  he  has  around  him  a  group  of 
enthusiastically  loyal  teachers  who  have  national  and 
international  reputations.  There  are  other  institutions 
in  this  country  with  great  men  on  their  faculties,  but 
somehow  things  are  blocked,  something  gets  in  the  way, 
and  the  institutions  themselves,  to  say  nothing  of  the 
educational  world  generally,  do  not  reap  full  benefit  of 
the  latent  ability  of  these  great  teachers. 

Some  principals  object  to  placing  more  than  a  very 
limited  amount  of  responsibility  on  the  members  of  the 
faculty.  Of  course,  in  any  provision  for  co-operative 
effort,  the  principal  remains  the  executive  head  of  the 
school,  but  the  question  of  authority  need  not  arise 
even  in  the  most  extreme  type  of  co-operation.  In  fact, 
the  principal  becomes  the  constructive  leader  and  bears 
the  same  relationship  to  the  faculty  that  the  teacher 
does  to  the  class.  It  is  his  business  to  bring  to  the 
highest  possible  point  of  development  the  individual 
members  of  his  staff. 

With  respect  to  the  social  problems  of  the  student 
body,  there  is  urgent  need  of  constructiveness.  Gen- 
erally speaking,  we  have  not  yet  sensed  the  social  prob- 
lems in  our  schools.  There  are  high  schools  which,  by 
virtue  of  internal  conditions,  send  forth  their  graduates 
with  a  perverted  notion  of  democracy  and  actually  un- 
fitted to  participate  fully  in  a  democracy.  Witness 
schools  with  Greek-letter  secret  fraternities;  with  exclu- 
sive literary  societies  whose  membership  is  restricted  to 
the  so-called  socially  elect;  with  clubs  and  cliques,  no 
one  of  which  serves  any  of  the  purposeful  ends  of  secon- 
dary education,  or  helps  in  any  way  to  unify  the  com- 


NEW  CONCEPTION  OF  THE  PRINCIPALSHIP    343 

mon  interests  of  the  school.  Witness  schools  in  which 
the  athletics  are  dominated  by  secret  organizations  or 
cliques,  and  unsportsmanlike  practices  are  permitted  to 
go  unnoticed.  Witness  schools  in  which  it  is  considered 
right  and  proper  on  the  part  of  players  on  the  teams  to 
spend  the  school's  money  freely,  and  keep  a  goodly  part 
of  the  equipment;  in  which  it  is  considered  fair  to  "get" 
a  player  on  the  opposing  team,  regardless  of  the  man- 
ner in  which  it  is  done. 

Why  do  we  have  these  social  conditions  in  our  schools  ? 
No  one  will  maintain  that  they  sprang  from  a  desire  or 
latent  tendency  to  do  something  wrong,  or  to  interfere 
with  the  work  of  the  school.  Then  why  are  social  ten- 
dencies not  utilized  in  a  positive  manner,  and  thus 
directed  into  worthy  channels? 

Failure  to  sense  the  social  problems  results  in  a  de- 
generation of  the  social  activities  of  the  pupils.  It  re- 
sults in  a  degeneration  of  societies  that  were  originally 
good.  It  results  in  a  multiplicity  of  organizations,  few 
of  which  have  clear-cut  or  justifiable  reasons  for  exist- 
ence. It  breeds  secret  societies  and  exclusive  literary 
societies.  On  the  other  hand,  a  constructive  social  pro- 
gramme insists  that  each  organization  meet  one  or  more 
of  the  worthy  ends  of  secondary  education.  It  insists 
upon  organizing  the  activities  of  the  school  on  a  demo- 
cratic basis.  Members  will  be  chosen  on  the  basis  of 
merit  and  peculiar  fitness  and  not  upon  the  unjustifiable 
basis  of  those  particular,  indefinable,  social  attributes 
that  meet  the  ready  approval  of  secret-society  members. 
Under  such  a  programme  there  will  be  many  things  to 
unify  the  common  interests  of  the  school,  and  the  activi- 
ties wUl  be  organized  in  such  a  way  as  to  develop  to  the 
highest  possible  point  the  spirit  of  co-operative  effort. 

Our  general  assembly  periods  could  be  utilized  to  a 


344  HIGH  SCHOOL  ADMINISTRATION 

much  greater  extent  than  is  common  in  furthering  the 
social  organization  and  unity  of  the  school.  This  im- 
portant feature  of  high  school  organization  is  much 
neglected,  or  left  to  an  accidental  programme  of  events. 
In  a  certain  large  high  school  there  is  an  assembly  com- 
mittee composed  of  seven  teachers  who,  in  conjunction 
with  the  principal,  outline  the  assembly  work  through- 
out the  year.  This  is  not  done  from  week  to  week,  but 
by  semesters,  with  a  definite  purpose  behind  the  work. 
It  is  impossible  for  any  one  who  does  not  have  a  mes- 
sage to  appear  on  the  platform.  During  a  recent  semes- 
ter the  assembly  period  was  organized  to  teach  patriot- 
ism, to  further  all  patriotic  movements,  to  encourage 
worthy  school  activities,  and  to  provide  high-class  enter- 
tainment. Dramatics,  public  speaking,  debating,  class 
plays,  student  council,  publications,  athletics,  and  school 
clubs  were  among  the  activities  encouraged.  In  all  of 
these  programmes  the  pupils  were  given  a  large  part, 
and  in  many  of  them  they  had  complete  charge.  A 
wise  use  of  the  assembly  period  will  result  in  raising  the 
whole  social,  moral,  and  aesthetic  tone  of  the  school. 

Faculty  organization  and  the  attitude  toward  social 
activities  determine  in  a  large  degree  the  spirit  of  the 
administration  and  hence  the  soul  of  the  institution. 
They  are  vital  matters  in  the  fulfilment  of  the  highest 
purposes  of  public  secondary  schools. 

Coming  now  to  certain  other  professional  phases  of 
administration,  there  are  fields  of  endeavor  in  which 
minimal  standards  of  administrative  practice  need  to  be 
set  up. 

The  first  of  these  centres  aroimd  the  curriculum  prob- 
lems of  the  school.  A  casual  glance  at  the  subjects 
offered  in  our  secondary  schools,  the  requirements  for 
graduation,  the  specific  curriculum  constants,  and  the 


NEW   CONCEPTION  OF  THE   PRINCIPALSHIP    345 

number  of  elective  courses  will  reveal  clearly  a  state  of 
chaos  and  the  need  of  constructive  thinking.  Undoubt- 
edly, there  should  be  greater  agreement  among  us  in 
regard  to  the  administration  of  the  subjects  offered  by 
the  schools.  In  some  schools  there  is  an  effort  to  organ- 
ize the  subjects  into  a  curriculum  or  curriculums,  to 
meet  certain  clearly  definable  ends,  and  to  serve  groups 
of  pupils  who  wish  to  attain  these  objectives.  As  long, 
however,  as  we  discuss,  generally,  our  curriculum  policy 
in  terms  of  the  individual  child  we  can  never  hope  to 
reach  any  scientific  justification  for  our  practices.  There 
is  no  subject  or  group  of  subjects  equally  good  for  all 
children,  and  upon  such  a  basis  we  are  logically  forced 
to  open  our  schools  on  a  free  elective  basis  from  begin- 
ning to  end. 

This  state  of  chaos  and  diversity  of  practice  indicates 
the  need  of  organizing  and  administering  the  curricu- 
lums  in  accordance  with  the  aims  of  secondary  educa- 
tion in  a  democracy.  Indeed,  the  faculty's  first  work 
in  formulating  the  school's  curriculum  policy  should 
deal  with  an  expression  of  aims.  With  the  publication 
of  the  report  of  the  National  Educational  Association 
Committee  on  Secondary  School  Administration  there 
will  appear  a  fairly  acceptable  pragmatic  statement  of 
the  goal  of  secondary  education.  Having  formulated 
acceptable  and  worthy,  sustainable  aims,  the  faculty 
should  then  set  to  work  on  the  problem  of  adapting 
the  offering  of  the  school  to  the  needs  of  the  commu- 
nity. 

A  study  of  the  occupations  of  the  community,  the 
number  of  people  employed  in  these  occupations,  the 
number  of  graduates  entering  these,  during  the  past 
several  years,  a  study  of  what  the  eliminates  do,  a  close 
scrutiny  of  the  records  of  those  entering  college,  and 


346  HIGH   SCHOOL  ADMINISTRATION 

of  those  who  have  completed  the  so-called  vocational 
courses — these  facts  should  form  the  basis,  first,  of  de- 
termining the  necessary  extent  of  the  school's  offering; 
second,  the  organization  of  the  subjects  into  curriculums 
to  meet  certain  rather  clearly  definable  ends;  and  lastly, 
the  requirements  in  studies  in  these  curriculums.  A 
scientific  approach  to  the  problem  of  curriculum  build- 
ing shows  clearly  that  the  pupil  population  of  our  high 
schools  falls  into  groups,  the  needs  of  which  call  for  the 
organization  of  curriculums.  Such  an  approach  further 
reveals  the  fact  that  the  correlation  between  the  occu- 
pations chosen,  or  tentatively  chosen,  by  the  pupils  in 
the  early  years  of  their  high  school  course,  and  the  occu- 
pations actually  entered,  is  very  low  indeed.  Conse- 
quently, there  is  need  in  our  schools  for  a  system  of 
educational  and  vocational  guidance  that  is  far  more 
fundamental  and  effective  in  its  operation  than  any- 
thing yet  devised. 

Quoting  again  from  Doctor  Johnston:  "Educational 
guidance  means  more  than  mere  psychological  diagnosis 
or  vocational  information  and  placement.  It  means  the 
more  fundamental  effort  to  establish  in  pupils  proper 
internal  rather  than  externally  imposed  and  superficial 
motives  for  school  work,  and  to  administer  the  whole 
curriculum  in  this  more  effective  way." 

The  war  has  greatly  emphasized  the  curriculum  prob- 
lems. World  democracy  is  upon  us.  Systems  of  edu- 
cation, throughout  the  world,  as  one  of  the  direct  results 
of  this  war,  will  be  built  up  more  firmly  than  ever  on 
the  theory  that  the  highest  purposes  of  society,  as  a 
whole,  are  to  be  attained  by  the  greatest  possible  devel- 
opment of  each  individual.  But  how  can  this  ideal  be 
reached?  How  can  democracy  be  realized  or  even  ap- 
proximated?    Is  it  possible  for  us  to  have  our  curricu- 


NEW  CONCEPTION  OF  THE  PRINCIPALSHIP    347 

lums  organized  so  that  every  child  will  have  the  oppor- 
tunity to  make  the  most  of  himself,  and  will  be  placed 
under  scientific  guidance  where  he  can  be  best  served? 
Is  it  possible  to  organize  our  curriculums  so  that  they 
actually  stimulate  and  develop  the  intellectual,  aesthetic, 
and  vocational  interests  of  the  children?  How  can  we 
organize  the  school's  offering  so  that  the  children  will 
really  be  trained  for  citizenship  in  a  democracy — trained 
in  co-operative  effort  beyond  the  mere  needs  of  living 
together,  and  grounded  in  the  social  and  pohtical  theories 
of  our  national  life  ? 

These  are  real  problems.  They  are  standing  chal- 
lenges and  are  worthy  of  the  best  leadership  in  our  sec- 
ondary schools.  The  new  conception  of  the  principal- 
ship  puts  these  challenges  squarely  up  to  the  principal. 
He  must,  in  the  future,  accept  them.  To  do  less  means 
that  he  either  does  not  have  a  vision  of  his  real  work  or 
is  incapable  of  rising  to  the  occasion.  One  thing  is  cer- 
tain— the  principal  who  spends  his  time  juggling  cards 
cannot  render  large  service  in  determining  the  curricu- 
lum policy  of  his  school.  It  is  doubtful  if  such  a  prin- 
cipal has  any  clearly  defined  and  sustainable  curriculum 
policy. 

With  inroads  on  the  schools  growing  out  of  war  and 
reconstruction,  with  subtle  forces  endeavoring  to  abro- 
gate, and,  in  fact,  abrogating  to  a  certain  degree,  our 
child-labor  laws,  these  problems,  for  a  time,  at  least, 
will  grow  increasingly  great.  We  cannot  depend  on 
compulsory  education  and  child-labor  laws  to  save  the 
nation.  There  is  a  vast  difference  between  mere  atten- 
dance at  school  and  what  the  child  is  given  after  he 
gets  there.  We  must  look  to  the  organization  and  ad- 
ministration of  our  curriculums  of  study  if  democracy 
is  to  be  fully  realized. 


348  HIGH  SCHOOL  ADMINISTRATION 

Of  methods  there  follows  a  short  discussion  later.  In 
regard  to  the  content  of  the  courses  offered,  this  mate- 
rial should  be  selected  in  accordance  with  a  sound  prag- 
matic philosophy  of  secondary  education  and  the  objec- 
tives in  view,  in  the  particular  school,  as  determined 
by  the  school's  curriculum  policy.  There  is  one  factor 
entering  into  the  subject-matter  offered  that  is  too  im- 
portant to  pass  over  lightly.  Subject-matter  and  its 
organization  are  largely  dependent  upon  text-books. 
Without  entering  into  the  discussion  of  the  proper  place 
and  use  of  the  text-book,  it  is  a  fact  that  it  plays  an 
important  part  in  our  classroom  work.  Up  to  the 
present  time  Uttle  has  been  done  in  developing  sustain- 
able methods  of  evaluating  and  selecting  text-books. 
This  is  a  field  that  has  been  practically  untouched.  Too 
often  school  officials  are  carried  away  by  the  arguments 
of  the  book  man,  and  the  fact  that  certain  large  cities 
have  just  adopted  the  book. 

Such  items  as  the  author's  view-point  and  philosophy, 
the  author's  aims,  the  selection  and  arrangement  of 
material,  the  arrangement  on  the  page,  the  amount  of 
materia],  kind  of  paper  and  type  used,  the  durability 
and  the  cost  should  be  considered.  When  changes  are 
contemplated,  teachers  might  well  use  in  the  classroom 
for  one  full  semester  as  reference  and  supplementary 
material  all  texts  imder  consideration. 

The  second  large  fundamental  field  in  which  minimal 
administrative  standards  need  to  be  set  up  is  that  of 
classroom  methods.  This  implies  real  supervision  of 
teachers  and  teaching. 

Generally  speaking,  there  is  no  real  supervision  of  the 
teachers  or  the  teaching  in  our  secondary  schools.  In 
fact,  there  is  but  little  visiting  of  teachers  done  by  the 
vast  majority  of  secondary-school  principals.  And  A'is- 
iting  is  regarded  lightly  botli  b}-  the  principal  and  teach- 


NEW  CONCEPTION  OF  THE  PRINCIPALSHIP    349 

ers,  because  it  usually  ends  with  the  exit  of  the  visitor. 
It  distinctly  does  not  end  in  a  conference  that  is  in  any 
sense  of  benefit  to  the  teacher.  Teachers  succeed  or 
fail  largely  in  terms  of  their  ability  to  carry  out  instruc- 
tions and  to  get  along  with  the  pupils,  or  rather  their 
ability  to  remain  masters  of  the  situation  in  the  class- 
room in  a  disciplinary  sense. 

There  is  little  attempt  to  understand  the  teacher's 
philosophy  and  views  of  education  as  they  find  expres- 
sion in  the  classroom.  Discussion  of  the  work  follow- 
ing a  visit  is  a  rare  occurrence,  except  occasionally  to 
check  up  the  teacher  who  is  not  succeeding  in  her  work. 
But  there  are  potential  sides  to  supervision,  regardless 
of  the  ability  and  success  of  the  teachers.  Teachers 
yearn  for  leadership  in  supervision  of  the  right  kind. 
They  are  anxious  to  have  their  work  checked,  and  to 
be  told  that  they  are  doing  this  or  that  thing  exceed- 
ingly well.  They  are  anxious  to  change  their  methods, 
or  to  try  out  experiments  if  they  are  working  with  a 
sympathetic  principal  who  knows  why  their  work  is 
good  and  why  it  is  not  good,  and  will  tell  them  frankly 
and  honestly  how  a  change  will  bring  larger  results. 

This  means  that  the  principal  must  be  a  good  teacher 
himself  in  some  one  or  more  high  school  subjects.  It 
means  that  he  must  know  the  psychological  principles 
of  teaching  and  must  have  rare,  good  judgment. 

It  is  through  supervision  alone  that  we  can  unify  and 
bring  to  a  high  point  of  efficiency  the  classroom  work 
of  the  teachers.  A  greater  percentage  of  new  teachers 
could  be  developed  into  first-rate  teachers  under  con- 
structive supervision.  Failure  on  the  part  of  any 
teacher  in  the  faculty  should  be  regarded  as  a  personal 
matter  by  the  principal.  It  is  his  first  business  to  pre- 
vent failures,  on  the  one  hand,  and  to  encourage  growth 
on  the  other. 


350  HIGH   SCHOOL  ADMINISTRATION 

With  from  20  to  40  per  cent  of  our  faculties  changing 
from  year  to  year,  supei^vision  becomes  an  extremely 
vital  matter.  The  new  teachers,  as  regards  classroom 
methods  and  general  teaching  ability,  must  be  brought 
up  to  the  school's  standards,  or  the  whole  tone  of  the 
system  will  be  changed  within  two  or  three  years. 

The  young  teacher,  and  many  times  the  experienced 
teacher,  presents  a  serious  problem  in  that  she  brings 
to  the  high  school  the  university  organization  of  class- 
room material  and  university  methods.  The  principal 
who  cannot  or  does  not  detect  these  deficiencies  in  his 
teachers  and  make  a  constructive  attempt  to  modify 
their  work  falls  far  short  of  his  duties  as  a  supervisor. 

Supervision  is  a  difficult  matter,  because  it  is  so  indefi- 
nite, so  subtle  and  intangible.  There  is  a  common  lack 
of  standards,  because  it  is  so  largely  a  human  matter. 
Personality,  whatever  that  is,  is  an  important  factor. 
It  is  easy  to  get  crossed  with  teachers  when  discussing 
the  things  they  do  in  the  classroom.  Naturally,  we 
have  had  little  or  no  actual  supervision. 

One  of  the  surest  means  of  making  it  a  part  of  the 
work  of  the  principal  to  supervise  teachers  is  for  the 
superintendent  to  make  it  mandatory  that  he  not  only 
rate  his  teachers,  but  defend  his  rating  in  terms  of  defi- 
nite, illustrative  material. 

The  supervision  of  teachers  and  teaching,  of  course, 
strikes  at  the  heart  of  the  school — the  methods  of  in- 
struction. Here  the  principal  has  a  rare  chance  to 
exploit  his  philosophy  of  education.  It  is  not  a  difficult 
matter  to  create  a  sentiment  for  sane  methods— meth- 
ods in  keeping  with  the  school's  purposes.  It  can  soon 
be  made  the  fashion  of  the  school  to  democratize  the 
methods  of  the  classroom,  on  the  one  hand,  or  to  make 
them  autocratic,  on  the  other. 


NEW  CONCEPTION  OF  THE  PRINCIPALSHIP    351 

Every  school  should  have  a  policy  in  regard  to  meth- 
ods. The  socialized  recitation,  for  example,  is  not  an 
accident.  It  is  the  philosophy  of  the  administrator 
and  teachers  put  into  practice.  There  is  undoubtedly 
no  greater  opportunity  to  create  the  spirit  of  and  to 
practise  democracy  than  in  our  American  classrooms. 
Are  the  classroom  activities  dominated  by  the  teacher, 
or  are  the  pupils  set  to  work  co-operatively  to  solve  the 
problems  as  they  arise?  Do  the  pupils  make  contribu- 
tions toward  the  solution  of  the  question?  Do  they 
assist  one  another  under  direction  ?  Is  there  Just  enough 
skilful  guidance  to  make  the  work  of  the  classroom 
what  spontaneous  conversation  is  around  our  firesides 
at  home?  These  are  questions  of  vital  concern  to  the 
principal.  In  this  larger  sense  Dewey  says:  "The  reci- 
tation becomes  the  social  clearing-house,  where  experi- 
ences and  ideas  are  exchanged  and  subjected  to  criticism, 
where  misconceptions  are  corrected,  and  new  lines  of 
thought  and  inquiry  are  set  up." 

A  third  phase  of  the  principalship  in  its  larger  sense 
incorporates  the  leadership  and  progressiveness  shown 
by  the  principal  in  conceiving,  studying  with  his  fac- 
ulty, and  carrying  through  to  successful  conclusion  new 
movements  in  education.  These  are  matters  that  must 
receive  consideration  in  determining  the  potentiality  and 
character  of  the  administration.  This  is  not  an  issue 
between  conservatism,  on  the  one  hand,  and  progressiv- 
ism  on  the  other.  It  is  merely  an  index  to  the  growth 
and  development  of  the  whole  institution.  It  affects 
efficiency  of  instruction  and  the  general  intellectual  and 
moral  tone  of  the  school.  These  things  already  are  em- 
bodied as  the  sixth  standard  of  accreditirig  secondary 
schools  in  the  North  Central  Association. 

A  constructive  attitude  toward  supervised  study,  for 


352  HIGH  SCHOOL  ADMINISTRATION 

example,  is  an  important  thing  both  for  the  faculty  and 
the  school.  Supervised  study  means  more  than  the 
mere  extension  of  the  class  period  and  its  arbitrary  divi- 
sion into  recitation  and  study.  It  means  a  complete 
reformation  of  our  classroom  practices,  and  the  faculty 
should  be  given  every  chance  to  study  this  problem  and 
be  encouraged  in  careful  experimentation.  Educational 
guidance  may  be  a  mere  formality  or  it  may  be  made  a 
far-reaching  influence  through  a  higher  degree  of  corre- 
lation between  school-work  and  life-career  motives. 
Library  organization  may  mean  merely  a  sort  of  collec- 
tion of  books  and  magazines,  or  it  may  be  made  the 
means  of  cultivating  discrimination  in  reading  on  the 
part  of  the  whole  student  body.  Schemes  for  evaluating 
credit  in  terms  of  the  quality  and  quantity  of  work  done 
by  the  pupil  cannot  be  introduced  successfully  without 
study  and  planning  on  the  part  of  all  concerned.  Teach- 
ers' meetings  may  be  taken  up  in  handling  the  mere 
routine  work  of  the  school,  or  they  may  become  the 
source  of  great  professional  inspiration  and  growth. 
The  leadership  of  the  administration  is  a  vital  matter  in 
the  development  of  a  system  of  vocational  education 
and  part-time  or  continuation  classes.  The  develop- 
ment of  a  comprehensive  scheme  for  health  education  is 
largely  a  matter  of  vision  and  leadership,  as  are  con- 
structive programmes  for  the  aesthetic  and  moral  train- 
ing of  the  pupils  through  music,  art,  and  drama. 

Lastly,  there  must  be  a  constructive  attempt  to  study 
scientifically  the  school's  practices.  It  is  a  difficult 
matter  to  place  educational  practices  on  a  scientific 
basis,  and  thus  remove  them  from  the  world  of  "In  my 
experience"  or  "I  believe."  This  can  be  done  through 
scientific  investigation  and  research  and  the  testing  of 
results  through  the  use  of  standard  scales  and  tests. 


NEW  CONCEPTION  OF  THE  PRINCIPALSHIP    353 

There  are  certain  statistical  studies  that  should 
constitute  a  minimum  in  high  school  administration. 
The  content  of  the  courses  may  well  be  studied  scien- 
tifically. Ayres's  investigations  in  spelling  have  in- 
dicated the  possible  elimination  of  waste  in  other 
branches  of  study,  and  even  in  high  school  branches. 
How  long  is  it  necessary  for  pupils  to  study  commercial 
arithmetic  in  order  to  gain  proficiency  and  accuracy? 
Should  bookkeeping  courses  cover  two  or  four  years? 
These  are  important  questions.  Another  type  of  study 
closely  related  to  the  classroom  is  that  of  teachers' 
marks.  With  the  advent  of  weighted  credit  schemes, 
it  is  a  matter  of  first  importance  that  cuimulative 
studies  of  teachers'  marks  be  made.  It  will  be  dis- 
covered that  there  is  the  widest  possible  variation  in 
marking  not  only  as  among  departments,  but  among 
the  teachers  in  the  same  department.  It  is  likewise  im- 
portant to  make  a  cumulative  study  of  promotions, 
failures,  conditions,  demotions,  and  eliminations.  In  no 
other  way  can  a  faculty  be  brought  to  the  realization  of 
the  great  loss  in  our  schools.  In  some  instances  fewer 
than  50  per  cent  of  the  pupils  beginning  a  course  are  re- 
ceiving their  credits.  While  ages  of  pupils  and  progress 
through  school  may  be  more  important  at  the  present 
time  in  the  elementary-school  field,  such  a  study  in  the 
high  school  will  tend  to  focus  our  attention  on  the  re- 
tardation of  boys,  especially,  and  the  possible  better 
adjustment  of  work  to  their  needs.  Finally,  no  in- 
vestigation of  educational  work  can  be  considered  com- 
plete which  does  not  show  the  cost  of  obtaining  the 
results  achieved. 

There  will  undoubtedly  be  minimal  standards  set  up 
in  the  near  future  in  regard  to  the  statistical  study  of 
the  work  of  the  secondary  school. 


354  HIGH  SCHOOL  ADMINISTRATION 

This  conception  of  the  principal's  work  dignii&es  the 
position.  The  principal  becomes  a  pivotal  man  in  the 
system,  a  moulder  of  educational  opinion  and  practice. 
Thus  the  position  carries  with  it  greater  responsibilities, 
and  the  school  touches  the  community  more  vitally  than 
ever  before.  In  a  new  and  peculiar  sense  the  principal 
links  the  school  and  its  internal  affairs  with  those  of 
the  community.  The  administration  of  a  wide  and  far- 
reaching  vocational  programme  implies  close  co-opera- 
tion with  the  commercial  and  industrial  interests  of  the 
community.  War  work  of  a  vital  kind  is  best  done 
when  the  school  and  community  are  working  together 
with  mutual  understanding.  A  building  programme 
to  bring  the  schools  in  line  with  the  best  in  educational 
practice  must  have  as  its  foundation  the  faith  of  the 
people. 

The  Boy  and  Girl  Scout  Movement,  the  boys'  and 
girls'  work  of  the  Y.  M.  C.  A.  and  Y.  W.  C.  A.,  social 
service  organizations,  discussion  clubs  composed  of  busi- 
ness and  professional  men,  the  City  Commercial  Club 
and  Rotary — these  community  organizations  and  others 
that  will  readily  suggest  themselves  offer  large  oppor- 
tunities for  the  principal  who  wishes  to  render  his  best 
service  to  his  community.  Identification  with  such  or- 
ganizations not  only  dignifies  the  position,  but  does 
much  in  creating  confidence  and  a  tolerant  attitude 
toward  the  things  the  principal  is  trying  to  do.  He  be- 
comes a  "man  of  affairs,"  and  ceases  to  go  by  the  omni- 
bus title  of  "perfesser." 

This  discussion  has  dealt  with  the  spiritual,  the  sub- 
jective aspects  of  administration.  Naturally  these  prob- 
lems present  a  new  and  a  higher  field  of  standardiza- 
tion than  has  yet  been  attempted,  or,  if  attempted, 
has  been  completed.     We  may  expect,  however,  to  be 


NEW  CONCEPTION  OF  THE  PRINCIPALSHIP    355 

checked,  or  measured,  by  these  larger  phases  of  school 
administration  which  determine  the  intellectual  and 
moral  tone  of  the  institution.  There  is  a  vast  difference 
in  the  spirit  of  secondary  schools.  We  shall  undoubt- 
edly scrutinize  the  factors  that  enter  into  the  making 
of  the  soul  of  the  institution,  and  set  about  the  task  of 
establishing  minimal  standards. 

In  this  newer  and  more  profoundly  professional  sense, 
high  school  administration  does  have  spiritual  and  tech- 
nical sides  as  well  as  teaching.  The  principal  in  such  a 
scheme  must  be  a  man  strong  in  leadership,  and  capable 
of  inspiring  the  best  talent  on  his  faculty.  He  must  be 
a  man  with  a  sound  philosophy  of  secondary  education 
and  a  vision — a  man  into  whose  hands  education  in  this 
larger  sense  may  safely  be  intrusted. 


THE  HIGH  SCHOOL  AND  MODERN 
CITIZENSHIPi 

Since  the  World  War  began  every  thinking  man  has 
been  surprised  both  at  the  ignorance  of  himself  and  of 
the  American  people  in  general  in  matters  of  history, 
especially  of  those  conditions,  economic  and  otherwise, 
which  more  definitely  shape  international  policies.  The 
''international  mind"  is  lacking.  We  have  not  tried  to 
acquire  this  international  habit  of  mind,  and  every 
thinking  man  who  tries  to  remedy  this  lack  in  himself  or 
in  others  finds  that  there  is  nothing  obvious  about  the 
just-noticed  immediate  and  actual  incident  he  reads  of. 
He  finds  that  the  situation  requires  hard  thinking  and 
thorough  study.  He  finds  himself  inevitably  on  each 
issue  led  out  into  the  larger  relations  of  human  experi- 
ence.   He  has  to  think  historically,  and  it  is  hard  work 

*  As  a  member  of  the  Reviewing  Committee  of  the  National  Com- 
mission on  the  Reorganization  of  Secondary  Education  the  writer 
has  had  occasion  to  read  critically  several  drafts  of  a  "Report  on 
Social  Studies."  The  particular  committee  of  the  commission  who 
co-operated  in  making  this  report  consisted  of  twenty  members, 
selected  on  a  plan  radically  different  from  the  plan  operative  in  the 
selection  of  membership  for  former  national  committees  of  this 
character,  such  as  the  famous  Committee  of  Ten  of  1893,  with 
Charles  W.  Eliot  chairman,  and  the  other  well-known  Committees 
of  Seven  and  of  Five.  Of  the  twenty  members,  fourteen  are  school- 
men in  active  service,  four  are  university  professors  of  history,  and 
two  are  specialists  in  civic  education  of  the  United  States  Bureau  of 
Education.  This  committee  has  co-operated  with  the  American 
Historical  Association  through  its  committee  on  Definition  of  Pub- 
lic School  History,  and  with  a  similar  committee  of  the  American 
Political  Science  Association.  After  repeated  revisions  and  after 
several  critical  readings  by  the  Reviewing  Committee  of  the  National 
Commission  (consisting  of  eleven  members  at  large  and  of  the  chair- 

356 


HIGH  SCHOOL  AND   MODERN  CITIZENSHIP    357 

for  one  who  has  had  little  training  in  it.  He  often  builds 
up  his  social-science  point  of  view  by  going  backward 
into  history.  It  is  at  least  an  open  question,  also, 
whether  the  high  school  pupil  may  not  often  better  do 
this  in  some  such  way,  only  more  systematically,  rather 
than  by  the  formal  chronological  method. 

We  wish  to  ascertain  the  most  reasonable  grouping  of 
elements  in  school  life  and  thought  that  will  make  an 
army  of  one  and  one-fourth  million  boys  and  girls^  real- 
ize that  they  are  members  of  society,  that  they  have 
duties  toward  it  and  correlative  rights,  and  that  no 
rights  exist  without  corresponding  duties,  that  it  is 
their  business  to  have  views  on  matters  of  civic  morals 
affecting  the  local  community,  the  city,  the  state,  the 
nation,  even  the  larger  society  of  the  world.  The  politi- 
cal state  with  its  activities  is  only,  as  Green  has  said, 
the  shell,  the  superficial  appearance  of  the  real  things  of 

man  of  the  sixteen  subcommittees,  of  which  this  present  committee 
on  social  studies  is  one)  this  report  has  been  approved  and  has  just 
been  issued  as  Bulletin  of  United  States  Bureau  of  Education,  1916, 
No.  28,  pp.  63. 

This  article  is  inspired  in  part  by  the  report,  the  features  of  which 
are:  a  clear  discussion  of  the  meaning  "social  studies,"  which  term 
includes  history  as  such  but  other  matter  of  a  social  character  as 
well,  and  as  prominently;  suggested  courses  (some  of  them  new  and 
interesting)  which  are  to  go  to  make  up  this  two-cycle  six-year 
extended  secondary-school  programme;  the  cycle  principle  of  organ- 
izing the  two  three-year  "sequence"  units;  a  detailed  analysis  of 
the  newly  conceived  ninth-year  "community  civics";  the  same  for 
a  senior  high  school  course  in  the  "embryology  of  civilizations"; 
standard  preparation  for  the  new  social  studies  teacher;  and  stand- 
ards by  which  to  test  the  methods  and  the  pupil  achievements  in 
social  studies.  Other  important  discussions  in  the  report  concern 
distinctions  between  history  and  civics,  local  history,  history  for 
rural  communities,  differentiations  of  the  courses  in  social  studies 
in  the  cosmopolitan  senior  high  school,  and  an  elaboration  of  the 
theoretical  basis  upon  which  the  whole  report  has  been  constructed. 

1  Add  2,250,000  if  we  extend  secondary  education  downward  into 
the  7th  and  8th  grades, 


358  HIGH  SCHOOL  ADMINISTRATION 

history.  The  nation,  the  genius  of  the  group,  is  the 
real  thing,  which,  profoundly  a  part  of  the  people,  we 
can  neither  make  nor  destroy.  The  subjects  to  be  really 
understood  in  the  new  history,  or  social  science — under- 
stood, sensed  appreciatively  by  public-school  pupils  as 
well  as  others,  are  such  things  as  impulses  of  national 
feeling,  the  growth,  development,  social  conditions,  in- 
dustry, and  commerce  of  a  nation;  in  comparison  with 
these  the  surface  doings  of  kings  and  political  leaders 
may  be  often  of  minor  importance. 

The  school's  most  serious  and  pressing  work  now  is  to 
teach  young  American  democracy  these  facts  of  social 
import.  Even  religious  instruction  is  no  more  important 
— indeed  this  social  science  ought  to  be  taught,  as  in 
France,  with  a  sort  of  conscious  high-toned  religious 
seriousness.  The  difficult  social  situations  ahead  of  us 
must  be  anticipated  by  the  special  group  of  teachers  in 
charge  of  the  social  studies.  Our  curriculum  philoso- 
phy, so  far  as  these  subjects  (history  and  other  social 
studies)  are  concerned,  must  be  thought  out  with  a  full 
realization  of  the  great  difficulties.  The  modern  demo- 
cratic state  is  in  danger,  real  danger.  Other  states  with- 
out our  democratic  organization  have  done  some  things 
in  a  far  better  way  than  our  democracy  has  done  them. 
Many  doubters  of  democracy  among  us  have  a  deep 
impression  of  our  amorphousness,  our  ignorance,  our 
disorder,  and  our  lack  of  discipline;  our  lazy  defenseless- 
ness,  with  no  conscript  army  and  no  militaristic  ardor; 
without  a  steering-gear  and  with  no  "nervy"  discipli- 
narian in  the  presidential  chair  to  call  us  to  order,  to 
chastise  Mexico,  to  reprimand  California,  to  make  the 
South  sit  back  in  a  dark  corner;  and  to  dare  to  call  the 
assumed  bluffs  of  all  the  larger  foreign  bullies.  Our 
whole  democratic  government,  democratic  social  life, 
democratic  tradition,  and  democratic  education  (what 


HIGH   SCHOOL  AND   MODERN   CITIZENSHIP    359 

there  is  of  it !)  enrages  the  sense  of  organization  and  ideal 
of  social  order,  not  only  of  a  Prussian,  but  also  of  many 
a  citizen  of  our  own  country.  Maybe  our  modem  dem- 
ocratic state,  whatever  it  is  (it  has  not  ever  been  even 
clearly  idealized,  much  less  realized  anywhere),  is  too 
blithely  entering  upon  the  most  dangerous  path  it  has 
ever  trodden. 

Our  question  is,  "What  are  our  public  schools  going 
to  do  about  it?"  The  answer  is,  they  are  going  to  do 
most  of  what  will  be  done.  Education  for  modern  citi- 
zenship is  a  large  order  and  covers  the  whole  of  educa- 
tion. In  a  legitimate  sense,  however,  we  may  place  the 
definite  responsibility  upon  the  courses  in  history  and 
the  other  social  studies,  and  inquire  specifically  what 
are  the  modern  proposals  for  courses  to  meet  the  need 
indicated  above  and  what  is  the  educational  principle 
underlying  and  justifying  or  condemning  these  proposals 
for  radical  reorganization.  I  shall  deal  with  just  one  of 
these  proposals,  one  which  is  significant  and  character- 
istic of  the  reforms  advocated. 

In  order  to  do  this  at  all  satisfactorily  one  must  first 
discuss  certain  newer  notions  of  the  nature  of  history, 
certain  criticisms  of  prevailing  methods  and  aims  of 
teaching  history,  certain  radical  reforms  in  organization 
and  administration  which  have  a  bearing  on  the  school 
work  in  history,  and  certain  analogous  reform  practices 
in  foreign  countries. 

Woodbridge  has  recently  said  that  the  truth  of  history 
is  a  progressive  developing  truth  to  which  the  ages,  as 
they  continue,  contribute.  Even  in  the  studying  and 
in  the  teaching  of  history  we  are  illustrating  a  tiny  stage 
or  element  in  the  historical  process.  All  special  "ca- 
reers in  time,"  of  persons,  groups,  states,  societies,  races, 
nations,  add  to  the  process.  They  add  to  and  complete 
the  past  and  condition   the  future.     This  "career-in- 


360  HIGH   SCHOOL  ADMINISTRATION 

time"  aspect  of  all  series  of  events  reveals  history  as 
purposive  and  selective.  He  goes  on  to  show  that  there 
is  to  be  no  complete  history  of  anything,  but  many 
interlacing  histories.  Human  history  thus  becomes  a 
record  of  human  progress,  of  actual  rather  than  symbolic 
improvement,  as  measured  by  an  intelligible  human 
standard — not  merely  continuous  accumulations  of  re- 
sults in  some  specified  direction.  The  purpose  of  man's 
history  must  necessarily  be  the  "ability  to  so  use  the 
materials  of  the  world  that  they  will  be  permanently 
used  in  the  light  of  the  ideal  perfection  they  naturally 
suggest."  This  likewise  applies  to  the  section  of  his- 
tory which  recounts  national  progress. 

Everybody  perhaps  now  will  grant  that  we  as  a  people 
need  a  clearer  understanding  of  national  ideals.  We 
need  to  realize  what  freedom  means.  We  need  to  ac- 
quire convictions  regarding  the  kind  of  organized  state 
which  will  make  real  freedom  possible.  America,  for 
example,  is  said  to  be  "sick  of  being  well."  Do  we  know 
that  the  "decay  of  a  national  spirit  follows  far  more 
surely  from  self-indulgence  than  from  military  disas- 
ters" ?  We  have  thought  too  much  of  freedom  as  being 
merely  the  existence  of  opportunities  for  achieving  per- 
sonal or  sectional  interests — instead  of  opportunity  for 
whole-hearted  devotion  to  the  sort  of  reality  of  perma- 
nent values  suggested  by  Woodbridge.  We  need  to  see 
that  our  nation,  as  we  idealize  it,  cannot  be  the  spon- 
taneous and  easy  outcome  of  an  indefinite  number  of 
scrambling  self-interests  or  hyphenated  group  interests. 
Sectionalism,  as  we  now  see  it,  just  after  a  national 
election,  is  easily  our  weak  link.  It  indicates  conflicts 
of  social  and  of  purely  political  ideals.  How  to  get 
out  of  this  "remedially"  is  not  simple. 

One  of  the  chief  agencies,  as  Dewey  well  says,  for  de- 


HIGH  SCHOOL  AND   MODERN  CITIZENSHIP    361 

veloping  the  good  aspects  of  a  nationalism  which  will  be 
a  friend  and  not  a  foe  to  internationalism  is  the  public 
school.  This  agency  takes  first  rank.  He  thinks  a  sen- 
timental seclusion  from  this  world's  affairs,  however, 
dominates  present  instruction  in  history  and  social  sub- 
jects. Paraphrasing  his  discussions,  the  pupil  leaving 
the  public  school  at  fifteen  can  only  wonder  at  the  odd 
selection  of  1492  as  the  numeral  for  the  year  one,  and 
can  proceed  through  his  course  of  American  history  with 
no  suspicion  of  Europe  save  as  a  place  from  which  dis- 
coverers set  sail  and  colonists  departed,  and  as  the  abode 
of  men  whose  evil  plans  got  good  Americans  into  wars, 
and  whose  affairs  and  governments  are  such  that  the 
less  Americans  have  to  do  with  them  the  better.  See- 
ing something  good  in  this  vast  provincialism  before  the 
present  years,  Dewey  now  feels  it  very  dangerous.  We 
are  in  a  new  sense  in  the  same  world  in  which  Europe 
exists  and  into  which  Asia  is  coming.  Industry  and 
commerce  will  continue,  and  increasingly,  to  interweave 
our  destinies.  The  older  state  of  mind  has  become  a 
dangerous  illusion.  Real  national  preparedness  depends 
a  great  deal  more  upon  whether  we  teach  American  his- 
tory and  other  social  studies  in  our  high  schools  in  the 
right  way  than  upon  a  few  hours  daily  in  perfunctory 
military  drill.  Our  history  must  be  seen  for  what  it 
really  is— a  reflection  of  European  movements  and  prob- 
lems; as  illustrated,  for  example,  in  waves  of  immigra- 
tion which,  as  other  things,  suggest  our  common  and 
international  world  where  world-wide  forces  are  visibly 
operating.  American  history  must  be  substituted  for 
American  mythology.  There  has  been  too  much  "tepid 
characterlessness"  permeating  the  atmosphere  of  the 
school  wherever  any  social  topic  comes  up.  For  the 
American  child  evil,  for  example,  has  no  institutional  or 


362  HIGH  SCHOOL  ADMINISTRATION 

social  embodiment  in  our  national  life.  We  are  the  vic- 
tims of  a  "whitewash  of  indiscriminate  eulogistic  lan- 
guage" which  covers  the  difficult  and  also  the  interesting 
aspects  of  our  social  life.  We  are  rarely  vivid  or  "fired" 
in  our  classroom  depictions  of  struggles  between  inter- 
ests intrenched  in  law,  institutions,  and  social  conven- 
tions, and  the  requirements  of  further  enlightenment 
and  emancipation.  We  talk  and  teach  about  a  democ- 
racy in  the  abstract  as  if  it  were  busily  and  mysteriously 
working  out  the  miracles  for  us.  Our  secondary  schools, 
in  a  measure,  and  even  our  elementary  schools,  as  well 
as  our  universities,  should  become  the  homes  of  serious 
thought  and  genuine  convictions  regarding  our  real  social 
difficulties  and  conflicts. 

The  above  represents,  mostly  in  the  author's  own 
phrases,  Dewey's  critical  attitude  toward  what  now  goes 
on  in  the  average  school  under  the  name  of  education 
in  history  and  social  sciences  generally.  "Since  it  (the 
successful  accomplishment  of  the  ideal  end  in  social 
studies)  is  a  matter  of  ideas,  emotions,  of  intellectual 
and  moral  disposition  and  outlook,  it  depends  for  its 
accomplishment  upon  educational  agencies,  not  upon 
outward  machinery." 

It  is  easy  to  parallel  these  comments  with  others, 
some  of  them  from  professional  historians.  Professor 
Carl  Becker,  of  the  University  of  Minnesota,  comments 
as  follows: 

"High  school  students  emerge  from  their  history 
courses  with  a  very  slight  and  not  very  useful  body  of 
knowledge  about  the  past,  and  with  a  capacity  to  think 
historically  that  is  in  no  proper  proportion  to  the  time 
spent  in  such  courses ;  for  the  most  part  they  have  mem- 
orized a  few  facts  which  mean  little,  or  a  few  vague  gen- 
eralizations which  mean  even  less. 


HIGH  SCHOOL  AND   MODERN   CITIZENSHIP    363 

"What  is  the  solution  for  this  fundamental  difficulty 
in  respect  to  the  curriculum  ?  Frankly,  I  do  not  know. 
But  it  seems  clear  that  some  radical  reorganization  of 
the  curriculum  is  necessary.  The  value  which  the 
study  of  history  undoubtedly  may  have,  and  which  it 
therefore  should  have  for  high  school  students,  will  not 
be  obtained,  I  am  convinced,  until  the  student  is  made 
acquainted  much  more  intimately  with  characters  and 
events  and  those  complex  and  concrete  situations  which 
alone  make  the  past  real  and  give  to  the  study  of  it  a 
practical  and  a  disciplinary  importance.  This  cannot  be 
done  without  limiting  the  field  covered.  Perhaps  the 
field  should  be  contemporary  history;  perhaps  it  should 
be  the  history  of  our  own  country.  In  any  case,  I  doubt 
whether  any  satisfactory  solution  will  be  found  so  long 
as  we  continue  to  give  distinct  courses  in  history,  eco- 
nomics, civics,  and  sociology.  Why  would  it  not  be 
possible  (it  would  be  difficult,  certainly)  to  organize  a 
single  course,  of  one,  two,  three,  or  four  years,  which 
would  embrace  all  that  the  high  school  gives  in  the  so- 
called  social  sciences ;  a  carefully  co-ordinated  course  in 
which  history,  economics,  civics,  and  sociology  should 
all  find  their  properly  related  place?  Meantime,  I  am 
perfectly  willing  that  some  one  else  should  attempt  to 
organize  this  ideal  course." 

Professor  J.  H.  Hayes  of  Columbia  criticises  even 
recent  distinguished  historians  for  insisting  that  the 
state  is  the  only  fit  object  of  historical  study,  that  his- 
tory is  "past  politics,"  compendiums  of  data  about  kings 
and  constitutions,  rebellions  and  battles.  Now,  he  says, 
historians  and  economists  are  increasingly  giving  their 
attention  to  how  man,  apart  from  state  action,  has 
toiled  and  travelled  or  done  the  ordinary  things  of 
cvery-day  life.     Most  of  the  attempts  at  such  combina- 


364  HIGH  SCHOOL  ADMINISTRATION 

tions,  however,  he  thinks  have  been  mere  "social  mis- 
cellanies." Professor  Hayes  thinks  he  himself  has  suc- 
ceeded in  combining  political  and  social  history  in  a 
real  synthesis,  giving  economic  aspects  to  all  chief  politi- 
cal facts.  He  too,  however,  has  failed,  admittedly,  to 
do  anything  systematically  with  the  history  of  science, 
literature,  education,  philosophy,  and  art — other  equally 
vital  contributing  "careers  in  time." 

Many  more  extreme  views  easily  could  be  cited. 
Snedden,  for  example,  thinks  that  history  teaching  will 
eventually  be  determined  by  the  conditions  under  which 
pupils  are  led  to  comprehend  their  social  surroimdings 
and  the  underlying  principles  of  social  development. 
Making  these  approaches,  the  children  will  be  led  back 
to  use  all  sorts  of  historical  material  for  the  purpose  of 
gaining  perspective  and  illustration;  but  any  sort  of 
chronologically  remote  history,  for  its  mere  historicity, 
will  never  be  the  point  of  departure.  Indeed,  there  will 
be  no  more  of  what  we  have  ordinarily  called  histor\\ 
There  will  be  instead  sequentially  organized  courses  in 
social  studies  utilizing  materials  of  history,  but  in  en- 
tirely new  and  independent  ways. 

For  perhaps  even  more  radical  reforms  in  organization 
of  content  and  in  method  of  treatment  the  reader  is 
referred  to  a  discussion  by  L.  M.  Sears. ^ 

I  have  sought  thus  to  reflect  some  of  the  radical  but 
constructive  views  of  reform  in  public-school  history  in 
order  to  relate,  if  I  can,  some  of  the  proposals  for  carry- 
ing out  in  practice  these  views  to  a  proposed  reorganiza- 
tion of  the  entire  administration  of  the  public-school 
curriculum  itself. 

"Reorganization"  technically  means  such  changes  in 

^School  Review  for  November,  1916,  "Content  and  Method  in 
Industrial  History." 


HIGH  SCHOOL  AND   MODERN  CITIZENSHIP    365 

school  administration  as  will  tend  to  group  in  three  dif- 
ferent units  for  both  administrative  and  pedagogical 
reasons  the  first  six  grades,  the  next  three  grades,  and 
the  last  three  grades  of  our  twelve-year  public  schools. 

Omitting  all  consideration  of  the  merits  of  the  so- 
called  junior-senior  high  school  movement  as  a  matter 
of  school  policy  and  accepting  the  fact  that  this  reor- 
ganization is  coming  fast  and  offering  opportunities  with 
it  of  fundamental  changes  in  the  arrangement  of  sub- 
ject-matter in  every  subject  from  the  7th  grade  through 
the  12th,  we  may  point  out  that  the  social-science  work 
for  this  new  six-year,  two-cycle  secondary  programme  is 
receiving  fully  its  share  of  study  by  the  reorganizers. 
There  are  good  reasons  for  this.  The  social-science 
work  will  be  largely  required  of  all,  even  when  there  are 
worked-out  differentiated  curriculums  in  other  subjects 
for  the  various  student  groups.  Again,  in  the  mere 
matter  of  time  available  for  work  of  secondary  grade 
two  more  years  will  suggest  greater  possibilities.  Again, 
there  being  on  this  plan  three  curriculum  units  instead 
of  the  old  two-unit  arrangement  {eight  grade  sj^d  four 
high  school) ,  organizers  of  new  social-science  courses  will 
tend  to  conform  more  clearly  to  the  three  distinguishable 
cycle  requirements  and  sequences  of  courses  within  these 
cycle  divisions.  Another  is  that  history  curricula  and 
sequences  are  in  perhaps  the  greatest  need  of  reorganiza- 
tion upon  some  definite  principles. 

The  above  inadequately  stated  new  aims  of  public 
school  history,  together  with  this  new  6-3-3  arrange- 
ments of  the  grades  to  make  administrative  adjustments 
to  possible  new  sequences,  combine  to  create  a  situation 
which  offers  great  possibilities  to  those  who  would  re- 
conceive  history  in  its  new  setting. 

Can  we  in  our  reorganized  system  apply  the  French 


366  mCH  SCHOOL  ADMINISTRATION 

and  German  cycle  principle  of  curriculum  construction 
to  the  whole  continuous  sequence  of  new  courses  in  his- 
tory, and  apply  it  in  such  a  way  as  most  nearly  to  real- 
ize the  ideals  set  forth  for  the  newer  social  science  ?  In 
each  of  the  French  cycles  we  find  distinguishable  organ- 
izations of  subject-matter,  method,  degrees  of  difficulty, 
and  educational  outcomes  expected.  In  the  preliminary 
cycle,  so  far  as  history  is  concerned,  we  find  the  French 
boy  passing  through  the  infant  classes  of  biography  and 
anecdote,  through  the  preparatory  division  of  talks  and 
tales  of  great  personages  and  principal  facta  of  national 
history,  into  the  elementary  division  {first  cycle)  where 
chronologically  summaries  of  the  history  of  France  are 
systematically  given.  This  last  four-year  cycle  provides 
a  working  outline  for  the  boy  of  the  complete  history  of 
France  in  her  European  setting,  ending  with  France  and 
Europe  down  to  1889.  Building  upon  this  second  com- 
plete history  of  his  own  country  the  French  boy  has 
made  a  rather  careful  survey  of  the  whole  world  from 
the  point  of  view  of  how  it  has  influenced  his  native 
land.  While  his  first  or  preliminary  history  study  had 
been  largely  from  the  point  of  view  of  political  narrative 
with  battles,  martial  heroes,  territorial  expansions,  and 
governmental  changes  as  points  of  emphasis,  this  second 
four-year  cycle  has  systematically  enabled  him  to  fill  in 
this  sort  of  history  outline  with  genuine  economic  and 
modern  historical  interpretations  of  results  of  crusades, 
industries,  commerce,  merchant  marine,  navy,  trans- 
portation, etc.  He  has  at  this  junior  high  school  period 
had  more  and  better  history  than  the  American  boy 
who  at  the  end  of  our  senior  high  school  has  taken  all 
the  four  history  courses  offered. 

The  last  cycle  (of  three  years)  again  covers  the  ground 
from  Charlemagne  to  the  present  day.     Now  begins  a 


HIGH  SCHOOL  AND   MODERN  CITIZENSHIP    367 

still  more  thorough  study  with  broad  interpretations  of 
movements,  policies,  and  regimes,  rather  than  reigns 
and  dynasties.  The  military  portions  are  curtailed  in 
favor  of  deeper  analysis  of  political  and  social  develop- 
ments of  Europe,  not  merely  of  France.  Cloudesley 
Brereton  calls  this  particular  stage  of  history  study  (the 
first  year  being  a  general  survey  of  the  high  points  of 
world  history)  the  ''embryology  of  civilization."  It  is 
usually  more  advanced  than  our  freshman-sophomore 
college  history,  probably  something  like  the  approach  in 
the  recent  "Political  and  Social  History  of  Modern 
Europe"  by  J.  H.  Hayes.^ 

This  kindergarten  and  four-four-three  cycle  arrange- 
ment is  suggestive  at  once  to  those  of  us  who  are  trying 
to  do  our  curriculum  thinking  in  terms  of  our  elementary 
six-year,  junior  high  school  three-year  and  senior  high 
school  three-year  cycle.  Although  there  are  certain 
clear  objections  to  the  particular  cycle  scheme  as  opera- 
tive before  the  war  in  France,  still  on  some  such  frame- 
work we  might  make  a  strong  case  for  the  reorganiza- 
tion of  our  history  or  social-studies  course.  It  may  be, 
for  instance,  that  this  concentric  method  of  teaching 
history  is  best  suited  to  our  j&rst  two  cycles,  while  for 
our  senior  high  school  we  should  prefer  to  take  up  on  a 
more  extensive  scale  some  definite  period,  using  original 
sources  and  building  definitely  in  some  particular  sec- 
tion of  history,  perhaps  modern,  as  Becker  suggests, 
upon  our  junior  high  school's  new  foundations. 

It  is  clear,  too,  as  Dewey  has  forcibly  remarked,  that 

^  See  also  C.  H.  Spence's  three-year  scheme  for  secondary  civics  in 
"The  Teaching  of  Civics  in  the  Public  Schools,"  1909.  M.  Fouille's 
scheme  for  "sociology"  for  secondary  schools  in  Revue  Internationale 
de  Sociologie,  October,  1899,  and  M.  Bertrand's  "Sociology,"  a  com- 
bination of  economics,  the  history  of  institutions  and  social  ethics, 
"Les  Etudes  dans  la  Democratic." 


368  HIGH  SCHOOL  ADMINISTRATION 

we  must  consciously  through  all  our  social-science 
courses  cultivate  two  definite  aspects  of  nationalism ;  the 
first  is  that  we  have  a  nationalism  to  cultivate  that  is 
different  from  any  of  the  nationalisms  of  Europe  by 
being  interracial  and  international  in  its  make-up.  We 
have  the  most  difficult  task  of  all,  but  at  the  same 
time  one  that  immensely  enriches  the  possibilities  to  be 
attained.  We  cannot,  therefore,  construct  our  social 
science  for  any  cycle  on  quite  as  narrow  lines  as  those 
indicated  for  France.  This  means,  to  quote  Dewey 
again,  the  tremendous  task  of  "teaching  each  factor  in 
respect  to  each  other,  taking  pains  to  enlighten  all  as  to 
the  great  past  contributions  of  every  strain  in  our  com- 
posite make-up.  Every  pupil  should  know  the  rich 
breadth  of  our  national  complex  of  racial  strains." 

Dewey's  second  factor  which  complicates  curriculiun 
making  in  history  for  American  schools,  is  the  fact  that 
our  distinguishing  national  traits  have  been  the  product 
of  experiences  in  subduing  nature — ^not  other  peoples 
and  other  cultures.  There  being  no  more  pioneering 
possibilities,  the  masses  are  disinherited  in  so  far  as 
external  opportunities  for  developing  this  distinctive 
American  combination  of  traits  are  concerned.  The 
public  school  therefore  must,  through  its  social  studies 
largely,  compensate  somehow  for  the  loss  above  noted 
and  continue  this  development  of  the  distinctly  Ameri- 
can type,  spirit,  attitude,  mind.  If  it  cannot  do  this 
there  will  be  a  reversion  to  an  undemocratic  national 
regime  and  a  false  and  artificial  traditional  culture — 
a  " ref eudalizing "  of  education;  intellect  and  art  and 
leadership  for  one  group,  labor  and  debasing  obedience 
for  the  other. 

We  may  well  ask  seriously,  therefore,  whether  we  can 
seize  the  present  six-three-three  plan  of  reorganization 


HIGH  SCHOOL  AND   MODERN  CITIZENSHIP    369 

wave,  and  at  the  same  time  capitalize  the  invigorating 
newer  ideals  of  social  science  by  offering  a  definite  plan 
for  the  reorganization  of  history  courses  or  all  three 
cycles  of  public  education — a  plan  so  definite  that  future 
text-books  and  other  social-science  material  can  conform 
to  its  requirements  and  that  teachers  can  consciously 
develop  methods  and  apply  principles  of  sequences  con- 
sistent with  the  new  aims  and  new  material  and  the 
new  administrative  machinery. 

It  may  be  well  to  review  briefly  the  main  findings  of 
an  extensive  investigation  of  the  status  of  history  teach- 
ing carried  on  last  year  by  the  North  Central  Associa- 
tion of  the  seventeen  Middle  Western  states. 

Ancient-history  teachers  are  more  experienced  than 
teachers  of  American  history.  The  sequence  of  courses 
in  history  in  practice  is  as  follows:  Ancient,  mediaeval 
and  modern,  English,  American  (generally  three  offered, 
English  omitted).  All  are  full-year  courses  usually,  ex- 
cept American,  which  is  usually  a  part  of  a  course  of 
American  history  and  government  (two-thirds  to  his- 
tory). The  model  history  recitation  is  200-225  minutes 
per  week.  The  determinant  of  aims  and  purposes  is 
the  maturity  of  the  pupil,  scarcely  at  all  the  age  or 
experience  of  the  teacher.  The  ranking  aims  in  his- 
tory teaching  proved  to  be:  "To  cultivate  the  power  of 
handling  facts,"  "to  teach  the  use  of  books,"  and  "to 
promote  good  citizenship,"  success  in  each  being  tested 
by  written  and  oral  tests,  examinations,  and  reports  on 
special  topics. 

The  North  Central  Association  Commission  disap- 
proves the  prevailing  method  of  distinguishing  elemen- 
tary from  advanced  courses  by  mere  chronological  se- 
quence of  topics.  In  the  direction  of  fundamental  dis- 
tinctions which  should  mark  off  courses  in  one  cycle 


370  HIGH  SCHOOL  ADMINISTRATION 

from  those  in  another  it  suggests  a  different  method  of 
use  of  texts  for  senior  high  school  courses,  more,  and  a 
different  kind,  of  collateral  reading,  and,  because  of  the 
few  students  who  elect  history  courses  throughout  the 
full  sequence,  a  course  in  general  history  something  like 
the  French  course  in  the  "Embryology  of  Civilization" 
which  introduces  their  highest  cycle. 

These  suggestions  for  improvement  merely  tinker 
with  the  old  order  of  things.  There  are,  however,  many 
experiments  available  for  study  which  represent  definite 
attacks  upon  the  problem  of  working  out  a  genuine 
cycle  system,  a  sequence  of  history  courses,  that  is  (a) 
for  the  first  six  grades  which  will  furnish  a  basis  for 
junior  high  school  history  and  at  the  same  time  furnish 
something  with  a  measure  of  unity  in  itself;  (b)  another 
set  of  courses  of  a  definable  character  for  the  junior 
high  school  period  of  three  years,  laid  out  in  obedience 
to  certain  general  principles;  and  then  (c)  possibly  sev- 
eral different  unit  sequences  of  different  kinds  of  history 
courses  for  the  different  curriculum  groups  in  the  senior 
high  school. 

R.  M.  Tryon,  of  the  University  of  Chicago,  in  a 
recent  issue  of  the  Elementary  School  Journal,  has  elab- 
orated well  what  these  guiding  principles  should  be  for 
the  Junior  High  School,  and  has  also  analyzed  critically 
the  cycle  sequences  of  history  courses  of  Berkeley,  Cali- 
fornia; Lincoln,  Nebraska;  and  Indianapolis.  Perhaps 
the  most  important  cycle  organizations  of  social  studies 
and  the  one  destined  to  be  the  most  influential  nation- 
ally is  the  one  recommended  in  the  Report  of  the  Com- 
mittee on  Social  Studies  of  the  National  Commission  on 
the  Reorganization  of  Secondary  Education  of  the 
N.  E.  A.i 

1  Bulletin  1916,  No.  28.     See  descriptive  note  above. 


HIGH  SCHOOL  AND  MODERN  CITIZENSHIP    371 

The  National  Commission  on  the  Reorganization  of 
Secondary  Education  was  appointed  by  the  N.  E.  A.  in 
191 2,  in  a  way  taking  over  all  the  work  of  a  former  com- 
mittee on  the  Articulation  of  School  and  College  which 
itseK  had  been  a  second  edition  of  the  Old  Committee 
of,  Ten.  This  commission  is  composed  of  a  reviewing 
committee  comprising  eleven  members  at  large  and  the 
sixteen  chairmen  of  the  special  comjnittees,  each  of 
which  is  composed  of  about  ten  members  supposed  to 
be  experts  in  the  special  fields  of  subject-matter  or  ad- 
ministration with  which  the  committee  is  to  deal  ajid 
upon  which  it  is  to  present  a  report  with  recommenda- 
tions for  high  schools  generally  throughout  the  nation. 
The  particular  report  dealing  with  the  social  studies  has 
been  approved  by  the  reviewing  committee  of  the  com- 
mission and  will  soon  be  exerting  its  maximmn  influ- 
ence, we  may  suppose.  For  many  reasons  this  report, 
with  the  possible  exception  of  the.  report  on  the  admin- 
istration of  secondary  schools,  will  be  the  most  widely 
read  and  the  most  widely  adopted,  in  spots  if  not  in 
toto. 

One  of  the  most  important  historians  on  this  com- 
mittee is  Professor  J.  H.  Robinson,  whose  writings 
regarding  the  nature  of  the  "new  history"  are  fre- 
quently quoted.  A  sort  of  text  for  the  report  is  the  fol- 
lowing from  his  pen:  ''The  ideal  history  for  each  of  us 
would  be  those  facts  of  past  himian  experience  to  which 
we  should  have  recourse  oftenest  in  our  endeavors  to 
understand  ourselves  and  our  feUows.  No  one  account 
would  meet  the.  needs  of  all,  but  all  would  agree  that 
much  of  what  now  passes  for  the  elements  of  history 
meets  the  needs  of  none.  No  one  questions  the  inalien- 
able right  of  the  historian  to  interest  himself  in  any 
phase  of  the  past  that  he  chooses.     It  is  only  to  be 


372  HIGH  SCHOOL  ADMINISTRATION 

wished  that  a  greater  number  of  historians  had  greater 
skill  in  hitting  upon  those  phases  of  the  past  which 
serve  us  best  in  understanding  the  most  vital  problems 
of  the  present,"  The  most  fundamental,  distinguish- 
ing, and  also  the  most  questionable  principle  assumed 
throughout  the  report  is  that  "the  most  vital  problems 
of  the  present"  for  the  high  school  pupil  are  the  prob- 
lems which  he  himself  is  facing  now,  or  which  are  of 
direct  value  to  him  in  his  present  process  of  growth. 
The  committee  believes  that  it  will  thus  be  possible  to 
substitute  a  more  fundamental  and  a  more  pedagogical 
principle  than  merely  that  of  chronology  for  organizing 
the  material  that  shall  constitute  the  courses  in  the 
social  studies  throughout  the  whole  extended  six-year 
secondary  programme. 

The  term  "social  studies"  rather  than  "history"  more 
adequately  suggests  the  subject-matter  directly  relating 
to  the  organization  and  development  of  human  society 
or  to  man  as  a  member  of  social  groups.  In  common 
with  all  subjects  in  our  extended  six-year  secondary 
school  the  controlling  aim  of  the  social  studies  is  social 
efficiency.  Differing  from  other  school  studies  in  con- 
tent, these  studies  afford  peculiar  opportunity  for  train- 
ing individuals,  as  members  of  society,  by  cultivating 
patriotic  and  efficient  citizenship— a  citizenship  broad 
enough,  indeed,  to  include  a  sense  of  membership,  for 
example,  in  international  leagues.  The  specific  aim, 
however,  is  "intelligent  and  genuine  patriotism,"  this 
rightly  conceived  being  among  other  things  a  real  step 
toward  neighborliness  among  nations. 

Most  attempts  to  "socialize"  the  academicized  mate- 
rial even  of  common  civics  courses,  to  say  nothing  of  the 
old-line  history  courses,  have  been  superficial  and  me- 
chanical.    What   is   the   true   principle   for   genuinely 


HIGH  SCHOOL  AND  MODERN  CITIZENSHIP    373 

socializing  all  the  social  studies  of  the  public  school? 
This  coimnittee  says  the  determining  factor  in  choice 
and  organization  of  materials  and  in  method  of  teach- 
ing it,  also,  should  be  the  student's  immediate  needs  of 
social  growth.  In  addition  to  the  text  taken  from  Rob- 
inson above,  there  is  also  one  chosen  from  Dewey:  "If 
we  could  really  believe  that  attending  to  the  needs  of 
present  growth  would  keep  the  child  and  the  teacher 
alike  busy,  and  would  also  provide  the  best  possible 
guarantee  of  the  learning  needed  in  the  future,  trans- 
formation of  educational  ideals  might  soon  be  accom- 
plished, and  other  desirable  changes  would  largely  take 
care  of  themselves." 

So  much  emphasis  is  placed  upon  this  fundamental 
educational  principle,  and  it  is  so  likely  to  be  misinter- 
preted that  I  venture  to  quote  a  paragraph  of  the  report 
itself. 

"The  high  school  course  has  heretofore  been  deter- 
mined too  largely  by  supposed  future  needs  and  too 
little  by  present  needs  and  past  experience.  The  im- 
portant fact  is  not  that  the  pupil  is  getting  ready  to 
live,  but  that  he  is  living,  and  in  immediate  need  of  such 
mental  and  social  nourishment  as  will  enable  him  to 
adjust  himself  to  his  present  social  environment  and 
conditions.  By  the  very  processes  of  present  growth  he 
will  make  the  best  possible  provision  for  the  future. 
This  does  not  mean  that  educational  processes  should 
have  no  reference  to  the  future.  It  does  not  mean,  to 
use  a  concrete  illustration,  that  a  boy  should  be  taught 
nothing  about  voting  until  he  is  twenty-one  and  about 
to  cast  his  first  ballot.  It  means  merely  that  such  in- 
struction should  be  given  at  the  psychological  and  social 
moment  when  the  boy's  interests  are  such  as  to  make 
the  instruction  function  effectively  in  his  processes  of 


374  HIGH  SCHOOL  ADMINISTRATION 

growth.  A  distinction  should  be  made  between  the 
'needs  of  present  growth'  and  immediate,  objective 
utiHty.  As  the  boy's  mental  and  social  horizon  broad- 
ens with  the  process  of  education,  he  will  become  in- 
quisitive about  the  facts  and  relations,  perhaps  long 
before  he  has  direct  use  for  them  in  the  affairs  of  life. 
The  best  question  that  can  be  asked  in  class  is  the  ques- 
tion that  the  pupil  himself  asks  because  he  wants  to 
know,  and  not  the  question  the  teacher  asks  because  he 
thinks  the  pupil  some  time  in  the  future  ought  to 
know." 

Assmning  then  that  the  first  six  grades  have  been 
modified  properly  in  accordance  with  the  demands  for 
social  education  everywhere,  the  Report  proposes  the 
following  plan  for  junior  high  school  (yth-yth  grades) 
and  senior  high  school  (ioth-i2th): 

Seven  to  nine  years:  Geography,  European  History, 
American  History,  and  Community  Civics,  three  sub- 
jects proper,  with  explanations  which  I  shall  give  later. 

Ten  to  twelve  years :  European  History  to  about  1 700, 
European  History  from  1700,  American  History  since 
1700,  and  a  course  in  social,  economic,  and  political 
problems. 

This  scheme  assures  provisions,  as  in  the  Indianapolis 
elementary  course  of  study,  for  emphasizing  consciously, 
from  the  ist  grade  up,  the  civic  aspects  of  education, 
though  no  "civics"  as  a  special  subject  appears  before 
the  eighth  year,  no  geography  as  such  before  the  fourth, 
and  no  history  before  the  sixth.  Nevertheless,  the 
child  throughout  the  elementary  no  less  than  the  secon- 
dary school  is  receiving  definite  instruction  in  civic  rela- 
tions, just  as  he  is  all  along  learning  something  of  geog- 
raphy and  historical  relations.  He  is  getting  the  citi- 
zen's attitude  and  is  having  the  foundations  laid  for 


mCH  SCHOOL  AND  MODERN  CITIZENSHIP    375 

later  systematically  building  for  himself  an  organized 
conception  of  what  his  membership  in  the  community, 
be  it  local  or  state  or  national  or  broader  still,  means. 
The  "gang  spirit"  of  boys  and  the  "groping  sentimen- 
tality" of  girls  can  then,  in  the  next  few  years  of  social 
study  (i2  to  15)  be  more  readily  turned  into  "useful 
channels  of  social  feeling,  social  thought,  and  social 
action." 

The  report  elaborates  three  general  plans  for  this 
junior  high  school  period,  each  subject  to  variations. 
All  of  them  are  now  being  tried  out.  One  is  the  old 
Indianapolis  plan,  with  geography,  history,  and  civics 
in  sequence;  another,  the  new  Indianapolis  plan,  with  a 
sort  of  interorganization  of  these  subjects  in  such  a 
way  that  the  pupil  hardly  knows  he  is  studying  differ- 
ent subjects;  still  another  is  the  Philadelphia  plan, 
which  starts  civics  as  a  distinct  subject  early  in  the 
grades,  gradually  increasing  the  number  of  hours  per 
week  as  the  subject  grows  more  complex  and  the  stu- 
dent more  mature. 

The  term  "community  civics"  suggests  a  point  of 
view;  and  this  point  of  view  is  applied  to  the  study  of 
the  national  community  as  well  as  to  the  study  of  the 
local  community.  Emphasis  is  laid  on  the  local  com- 
munity because  that  is  the  community  of  familiarity  for 
every  citizen;  and  for  the  child  this  community  is  in  the 
foreground  of  experience.  Sense  of  personal  responsi- 
bility, desire  for  co-operation,  and  the  realization  of 
membership  in  the  local  community  can  be  more  readily 
seciu"ed  than  through  a  study  of  the  national  community. 

The  pupil  is  led  to  compare  the  social  conditions  of 
the  present  with  those  of  the  past,  and  of  the  immediate 
community  with  those  of  other  communities.  This 
should  lead  to  the  new  type  of  history  advocated  for 


376  HIGH  SCHOOL  ADMINISTRATION 

later  years.  The  study  of  vocations,  for  example,  dur- 
ing this  period,  while  incidentally  helping  the  pupil  to 
choose  the  right  calling  in  life,  would  tend  to  create  a 
better  understanding  and  better  relations  between  the 
different  classes  of  people. 

The  report  states  that:  "Experience  proves  that 
pupils  who  have  had  such  training  in  the  elementary 
schools  are  the  better  prepared  for  their  high  school 
work,  especially  in  the  field  of  social  studies.  They  are 
also  the  better  prepared  for  the  transition  to  the  larger 
freedom  and  responsibility  of  the  high  school." 

The  specific  aims  set  forth  for  commimity  civics  are: 
(a)  To  see  the  importance  and  significance  of  the  ele- 
ments of  community  welfare;  (b)  to  know  the  social 
agencies,  governmental  and  voluntary,  that  exist  to 
secure  these  elements  of  community  welfare;  (c)  to 
recognize  civic  obligation,  present  and  future,  and  to 
respond  to  them  by  appropriate  action. 

The  following  elements  of  welfare  are  suggested  a? 
topics  to  be  studied:  health,  protection  of  life  and 
property,  recreation,  education,  civic  beauty,  wealth, 
communication,  transportation,  migration,  charities,  and 
correction.  In  addition  should  be  considered  the  fol- 
lowing topics  dealing  with  the  mechanism  of  commu- 
nity agencies:  how  governmental  agencies  are  con- 
ducted and  financed;  and  how  the  voluntary  agencies 
are  conducted  and  financed. 

This  committee  recommends  in  detail  illustrative  or- 
ganizations of  social  studies,  suggesting  alternative  pro- 
grammes, and  consciously  avoiding  excluding  still  other 
adjustments  to  requirements  of  local  conditions. 

The  report  contains  many  more  interesting  and  im- 
portant proposals  and  directions.  There  is  a  large  sec- 
tion devoted  to  helpful  distinctions  between  history  and 


HIGH  SCHOOL  AND  MODERN  CITIZENSHIP    377 

civics,  one  on  local  history  with  illustrations  of  how 
topics  of  this  kind  are  being  developed  somewhere,  and 
another  on  adaptation  of  the  whole  scheme  to  rural 
communities.  The  amplification  of  the  course  for  the 
ninth  year,  which  is  to  be  either  the  finishing  year  of 
the  junior  high  school  cycle  or  the  first  year  of  the  high 
school  in  the  old  organization,  important  in  either  set- 
ting, is  a  feature,  a  course  characterized  by  a  more  sys- 
tematic introduction  of  national  concepts,  world  inter- 
ests, and  civic  relations  of  vocational  life.  There  are 
further  explanations  of  how  in  the  senior  high  school 
there  may  even  be  differentiation  of  curriculums  and 
modified  social-studies  courses  for  the  different  curricu- 
lum settings,  suggestions  discrediting  the  vain  efforts  to 
remedy  the  present  situation  by  merely  adding  more 
history  courses  of  the  old  type  which  gains  nothing,  and 
discussions  of  the  college-admission  questions  this  new 
order  of  things  will  raise. 

The  committee  is  keenly  alive  to  the  fact  that  "the 
lively  contempt  for  history  expressed  by  readers  who 
would  escape  its  weight,  and  the  neglect  of  history  prac- 
tised by  educators  who  would  escape  its  authority  stand 
responsible  for  much  mental  confusion."  Agnes  Repplier, 
in  the  Atlantic  Monthly  for  November,  1916,  goes  on  to 
say  that  American  boys  and  girls  go  to  school  six,  eight, 
or  ten  years,  as  the  case  may  be,  and  emerge  with  a 
misunderstanding  of  their  own  country  and  a  compre- 
hensive ignorance  of  aU  others.  They  say,  "I  don't 
know  any  history,"  as  casually  and  as  imconcemedly  as 
they  might  say,  "I  don't  know  any  chemistry,"  or  "I 
don't  know  any  metaphysics."  She  goes  on  to  record 
that  Henry  James  once  confided  to  her  that  the  only 
reading  of  which  he  never  tired  was  history.  "The 
least  significant  foot-note  of  history,"  he  said,  "stirs  me 


378  HIGH  SCHOOL  ADMINISTRATION 

more  than  the  most  thrilling  and  passionate  fiction. 
Nothing  that  ever  happened  to  the  world  finds  me  in- 
different." One  is  tempted  to  ask  the  committee  if  this 
is  the  kind  of  history  they  are  talking  about,  and  one 
hopes  somehow  that  it  is. 

I  have  said  enough  about  the  report.  One  may  dis- 
agree with  its  fundamental  philosophy,  or  its  method, 
or  its  subject-matter,  or  its  arranged  sequences,  or 
finally  its  cycle  organization;  he  will  probably  in  any 
case  find  it  typical  of  the  many  current  attempts  to 
improve  public  education. 

What  of  our  most  vivid  incident  of  overwhelming 
social  import?  Professor  Samuel  McCune  Lindsay,  of 
Columbia  University,  well  refers  us  to  this,  the  most 
striking  social-science  lesson  the  World  War  is  bringing 
home  to  us,  and  which  in  some  sane  way  we  must  drive 
home  through  our  "social-studies"  classrooms. 

Germany  turns  out  to  be  a  "menace  and  a  model,"  a 
dark  "problem  for  foreign  statesmen,"  and  a  "path- 
finder in  social  reform."  How  get  and  give  the  civic 
lesson  ?  Americans  cannot  comprehend  how  the  Father- 
land is  devoted  to  the  people,  and  especially  how  they 
genuinely  return  this  devotion.  We  do  not  realize  how 
the  common  good  has  ever  been  so  effectively  erected 
into  a  goal  for  an  existing  state  organization  which  not 
only  thereby  justifies  its  existence  but  perpetuates  it, 
and  even  deifies  it.  No  personal  individualistic  do-as- 
you-please  American  attitude  is  conceivable  for  a  citi- 
zen of  such  a  benevolent  republic.  The  3,000,000  per- 
sons in  civil  service  are,  in  the  spirit  of  this  static  state 
philosophy,  impersonal  entities  in  this  over-individual 
enterprise,  which  looks  after  the  individual  efficiently  in 
all  sorts  of  social  service.  This  regime  is  the  whole  Hfe 
of  the  German  to  an  extent  incomprehensible  to  us. 


mCH  SCHOOL  AND  MODERN  CITIZENSHIP    379 

With  a  sense  of  ownership  of  public  utilities,  thankfully 
a  beneficiary  in  public  pensioning,  taxation  rates,  and 
education,  his  personal  individuality  is  so  beautifully 
ironed  out  for  him  that  it  cannot  even  be  an  issue.  Why 
should  caste  be  challenged?  The  generously  contrib- 
uted and  consciously  felt  proportionate  taxes  paid  by 
the  ruling  (the  ofiicial)  ranks  clearly  for  them,  and  for 
the  beneficiaries,  purchases  the  divine  right  to  rule. 
Bom  to  your  station,  if  you  are  one  of  the  people,  your 
excellent  school  is  ready-made  for  you.  Neither  you  in 
yoiu"  vocational  choice,  nor  your  school  in  its  curriculum 
choice,  can,  nor  has  the  need,  to  experiment.  Central 
control  benevolently  and  imperially  standardizes,  and 
on  a  uniformly  high  level,  areas  as  large  as  states.  The 
only  price  for  such  a  perfect  state  machinery  for  efii- 
ciency  is  spontaneity  and  resourcefulness  of  the  people. 
The  spirit  of  faith  in  public  service  is  highly  desirable, 
the  willingness  to  participate  is  noble,  especially  as  it  is 
a  thing  outside  ourselves.  What  can  be  nobler  ?  With 
Professor  Lindsay  we  say,  "the  same  faith  and  the 
same  spirit  for  service  for  ends  outside  ourselves;  but 
for  a  projected  end  which  shall  be  '  our  collective  organ- 
ization,' made  up  of  ourselves,  for  doing  things  that  we 
cannot  do  as  individuals,  cannot  do  by  means  of  any 
lesser  authority  than  that  which  the  state  itself  pos- 
sesses." 

Nothing  undemocratic  is  essential  to  the  development 
of  a  nation  great  and  strong.  At  present  an  aggrega- 
tion of  racial  and  sectional  groups,  by  placing  social 
welfare  above  selfishly  conceived  personal  rights  and 
by  cxiltivating  social  policies,  we  can  evolve  into  a  real 
nation  of  patriots. 

In  the  spirit  of  this  author:  "Let  the  schoolmaster  in 
America  bestir  himself  and  the  still  more  numerous 


380  HIGH  SCHOOL  ADMINISTRATION 

schoolmistress  seize  her  opportunity,  forget  to  teach 
hackneyed  and  dead-letter  phrases  of  the  constitution, 
and  cast  aside  the  formal  civics  that  never  gets  beyond 
a  dry  description  of  government  as  it  might  have  worked 
but  never  did,  and  instU  in  the  minds  of  the  youth  of 
to-day  a  real  appreciation  and  understanding  of  what 
our  city  councils,  commissions,  and  legislatures,  the 
health,  labor,  education,  and  other  departments  of  city, 
state,  and  national  governments  are  doing  or  failing  to 
do  to  meet  the  real  needs  of  each  community.  Let 
them  above  all  fight  the  cynicism  that  regards  a  public 
officer  as  a  weakling  or  a  crook.  Let  them  foster  a 
respect  and  ambition  for  public  service  of  every  kind, 
and  it  will  not  be  long  before  a  new  national  spirit  wiU 
be  aflame  in  the  land,  and  the  genius  of  the  American 
people,  enriched  as  it  had  been  by  the  pioneer  spirit  of 
so  many  lands,  will  devise  the  necessary  machinery  for 
social  and  democratic  government  in  which  liberty  and 
efficiency  are  no  longer  alternatives,  but  are  one  in  the 
basic  institutions  of  a  free,  happy,  and  united  people." 


PROBLEMS  EMPHASIZED  BY  THE  WAR 

The  World  War  will  be  followed  by  a  difficult  period 
of  reconstruction.  In  these  years  the  schools  will  in- 
evitably undergo  great  changes.  They  will  be  called 
upon  to  meet  new  demands  and  to  meet  old  demands 
more  effectively.  While  the  war  has  not  created  any 
new  problems  in  the  field  of  education  it  has  revealed 
many  problems  in  a  clearer  light  and  has  shifted  the 
emphasis  in  many  phases  of  school  work.  The  secon- 
dary school  will  always  occupy  a  strategic  position  in 
the  state.  It  is  imperative,  therefore,  that  students  of 
American  secondary  education  begin  now  to  consider 
the  problems  that  have  received  a  new  emphasis  as  a 
result  of  the  war. 

The  French  and  American  revolutions  of  the  latter 
part  of  the  eighteenth  century  marked  not  merely 
changes  in  forms  of  government  and  an  increase  in  in- 
dividual freedom  but  these  political  upheavals  were  ac- 
companied by  great  industrial  revolutions  that  changed 
the  whole  economic  and  industrial  system  of  the  world. 
There  were  revolutions  in  education,  in  industry,  in 
commerce,  in  science,  in  religion,  and  in  every  other 
phase  of  human  endeavor.  A  new  world  came  out  of 
that  period,  the  world  of  the  nineteenth  century,  the 
marvel  of  all  centuries. 

The  results  of  the  present  World  War  will  be  even 
more  far-reaching  than  those  produced  by  the  revolu- 
tions of  one  hundred  and  twenty-five  years  ago.  We 
may  expect  political  changes  not  only  in  Russia  and  in 
Germany,  but  an  accentuation  of  democracy  in  the  lib- 

381 


382  HIGH  SCHOOL  ADMINISTRATION 

eral  alKed  nations  as  well.  There  is  every  evidence  that 
we  are  undergoing  even  now  a  profound  economic  and 
industrial  revolution.  Witness  the  government  taking 
over  and  controlling  the  railroads  and  telephone  and 
telegraph  lines,  building  a  powerful  merchant  marine, 
controlling  food  supplies  and  the  fuel  supplies,  and 
regulating  in  many  other  unprecedented  ways  the  eco- 
nomic life  of  the  country.  Many  of  these  measures  are 
war  measures,  but  every  thoughtful  student  of  ajffairs 
knows  there  is  a  large  measure  of  permanency  in  them. 
It  is  reported  that  the  men  in  the  trenches  said  that 
there  would  be  a  new  France  when  the  war  was  over, 
that  there  would  be  a  new  England,  a  new  America, 
that  things  cannot  remain  in  any  nation  as  they  were 
before  the  war.  The  soldiers  are  determined  that  every 
nation  shall  be  made  better  by  this  conflict. 

In  the  maelstrom  three  momentous  problems  of  edu- 
cation, each  emphasized  by  the  war,  are  clearly  discerni- 
ble— the  problems  of  the  physical,  vocational,  and  civic 
and  moral  education  of  youth. 

After  the  war  human  life  will  be  valued  and  con- 
served. Nations  now  realize  the  meaning  of  man- 
power. Germany  led  in  the  protection  and  conserva- 
tion of  health,  in  the  movement  for  better  housing,  in 
the  protection  of  women  and  children  through  the  regu- 
lation of  hours  of  labor,  in  old-age  pensions  and  work- 
men's insurance.  It  is  true  that  she  was  autocratic, 
protected  her  people  in  a  paternalistic  manner,  and 
finally  ruthlessly  used  her  mighty  man-power  in  a 
wicked  cause.  But  this  fact  should  not  blind  democ- 
racy to  Germany's  wisdom  in  caring  for  her  laboring 
people.  Since  the  beginning  of  the  war  Great  Britain, 
France,  Italy,  and  America  have  begun  to  appreciate 
more  fully  the  value  of  human  life  and  to  make  more 


PROBLEMS  EMPHASIZED  BY  THE  WAR      383 

effective  provisions  for  its  conservation.  The  English 
education  law,  enacted  in  the  late  winter  of  1918,  in 
Britain's  darkest  hour,  is,  perhaps,  the  most  forward- 
looking  social  legislation  the  world  has  ever  known. 

The  schools  of  to-morrow  must  give  more  attention 
to  physical  education.  The  conservation  of  health  must 
be  based  on  an  adequate  programme  of  physical  educa- 
tion in  the  schools,  embracing  thoroughgoing  medical 
inspection  from  birth  throughout  the  school  hfe  of  the 
child,  effective  corrective  and  body-building  exercises, 
and  large  opportunities  for  play.  In  the  chapter  on 
physical  education  the  social  values  of  play  are  stressed. 
It  is  shown  that  nations  as  well  as  individuals  must  be 
good  sportsmen.  Germany  has  given  a  terrible  exam- 
ple of  the  meaning  of  mere  brute  power.  If  in  the  last 
generation  Germans  had  learned  to  play,  they  could  not 
have  committed  their  unspeakable  atrocities.  The  same 
rule  holds  within  the  state.  Where  a  high  ideal  of  sports- 
manship exists  the  vexatious  problems  that  arise  in  the 
economic  and  industrial  life  of  the  people  wiU  be  much 
easier  of  solution. 

Another  lesson  of  the  war  is  that  of  industrial  and 
economic  efficiency.  It  was  the  thoroughly  organized 
and  efficient  nation  industrially  and  economically  that 
won  the  war.  Germany  with  her  70,000,000  people 
came  very  near  winning  in  the  early  months  because  of 
her  efficiency,  efficiency  not  merely  of  the  army,  but 
army  efficiency  based  on  economic  and  industrial  effi- 
ciency. 

When  America  entered  the  war  she  found  herself  lack- 
ing in  every  kind  of  skilled  worker.  The  operations  of 
the  army  and  navy  were  greatly  hampered.  It  was 
necessary  hurriedly  to  organize  great  schools  for  training 
skilled  workers  for  the  army  and  for  war  industries. 


384  HIGH  SCHOOL  ADMINISTRATION 

Because  of  our  lamentable  unpreparedness  the  conflict 
was  prolonged  and  lives  needlessly  sacrificed.  The 
tragedy  of  the  situation  has  been  emphasized  by  the 
peril  of  the  Industrial  Workers  of  the  World. 

America  can  no  longer  have  millions  of  human  dere- 
licts floating  about  in  her  population.  There  is  no  room 
for  himdreds  of  thousands  of  unemployed,  for  millions 
who  cannot  earn  a  living  wage.  It  is  from  the  unem- 
ployed and  underpaid  that  those  anarchistic  movements 
come  that  threaten  the  whole  fabric  of  society.  The 
existence  of  such  groups  must  be  charged  in  part  to  our 
failure  to  provide  an  adequate  system  of  vocational 
training. 

These  conditions  are  due  in  large  measure  to  injus- 
tice in  economic  and  industrial  organization.  That  is 
a  problem  for  students  of  economics,  lawmakers,  and 
leaders  in  commerce  and  industry.  But  one  of  the 
chief  factors  in  the  creation  of  these  submerged  portions 
of  humajiity  is  the  lack  of  an  adequate  and  effective 
system  of  vocational  training.  These  people  are  often 
imemployed  or  underpaid  because  they  have  not  been 
trained  to  industrial  efficiency  and  independence. 

Without  question  there  will  come  in  the  epoch  follow- 
ing the  war  a  gradual  but  fundamental  reorganization  of 
our  economic  order  with  a  more  equitable  distribution 
of  wealth  and  better  conditions  for  labor.  Social  jus- 
tice will  become  more  of  a  reality  and  less  of  a  phrase, 
but  any  economic  reorganization,  to  be  effective,  must 
be  paralleled  by  a  development  of  vocational  training  in 
the  schools.  Men  and  women  cannot  be  economically 
independent  and  efficient  unless  they  have  been  trained 
to  be  self-supporting.  With  the  development  of  ma- 
chinery, which  will  undoubtedly  continue  at  as  rapid  a 
pace  as  in  the  last  century,  this  problem  will  become 


PROBLEMS   EMPHASIZED   BY  THE   WAR      385 

more  and  more  complicated.  It  will  be  the  business  of 
the  schools  to  train  the  youth  of  the  country  for  the 
work  of  the  country. 

There  are  enormous  difficulties  involved  in  vocational 
education.  If  the  individual  is  sacrificed  to  industrial 
or  commercial  interests,  if  by  the  vocational  training 
which  he  receives  he  is  inexorably  fixed  in  an  economic 
caste,  if  our  system  of  vocational  training  develops 
social  strata  comparable  to  those  which  have  existed  in 
Germany  and  other  European  countries,  we  shall  have 
irretrievably  failed.  We  must  provide  vocational  edu- 
cation without  the  accentuation  of  caste.  By  our  train- 
ing we  must  free  and  not  imprison  the  worker.  He  must 
be  vocationally  trained  but  at  the  same  time  be  made 
independent  and  resourceful. 

Finally,  the  war  has  taught  co-operation.  Special  in- 
terests could  not  fight  the  war.  It  demanded  the  un- 
stinted co-operation  of  every  agency  and  of  every  group. 
In  England  it  was  early  discovered  that  capital  had  to 
be  conscripted  as  well  as  man-power.  The  laborer  was 
willing  to  make  an  unselfish  sacrifice,  but  he  demanded 
his  rights  along  with  the  proprietor  and  the  owner.  The 
result  was  that  the  representatives  of  the  laborer  and 
of  the  proprietor  and  the  owner  sat  together  in  the 
little  group  of  the  British  cabinet  that  directed  Britain's 
mighty  war  effort.  Again,  the  English  were  soon  amazed 
to  find  that  woman  was  indispensable  to  the  prosecution 
of  the  war.  Every  industry  was  soon  dependent  on  her. 
Woman,  therefore,  was  suddenly  given  the  suffrage  and 
called  into  the  councils  of  the  nation. 

The  functions  of  government  have  been  wonderfully 
extended  and  in  the  period  of  reconstruction  may  be 
extended  still  further.  This  means  that  the  duties  and 
resjxjnsibilities  of  citizenship  are  becoming  increasingly 


386  HIGH  SCHOOL  ADMINISTRATION 

complex.  Here  is  the  outstanding  task  for  the  teacher. 
The  schools  must  be  so  organized  and  conducted,  and 
must  employ  such  methods  of  instruction,  that  they  will 
teach  boys  and  girls  to  take  their  places  as  thinking 
citizens  in  a  co-operative  commonwealth.  Germany 
was  led  into  her  great  crime  because  her  citizens  were 
not  trained  to  think  independently  on  social  and  eco- 
nomic questions.  They  had  had  little  practice  in  self- 
government.  They  were  taught  to  obey  rather  than  to 
think  and  to  co-operate.  In  school  and  home  the  habit 
of  unquestioning  obedience  to  the  state  and  to  the  estab- 
lished order  was  so  firmly  fixed  in  the  German  youth 
that  as  an  adult  he  yielded  docile  and  even  enthusiastic 
obedience  to  a  ruthless  autocracy.  It  was,  therefore, 
next  to  impossible  to  overcome  the  pitiless  efficiency  of 
the  German  school  system,  and  thus  liberate  the  people. 
In  America  every  classroom  and  every  school  must  be 
organized  and  administered  with  the  aims  of  democracy 
constantly  in  mind.  Our  methods  must  be  continually 
examined  and  modified  with  a  view  to  achieving  these 
aims. 

One  of  the  most  important  problems  of  the  socialized 
school  is  the  overtopping  problem  of  moral  education. 
Private  and  personal  rectitude  is  fairly  easy  of  accom- 
plishment. A  higher  level  of  personal  and  private  mo- 
rality and  purity  has  been  achieved  at  the  present  time 
than  the  world  has  ever  before  witnessed.  But  the 
same  high  standard  of  group  morality  is  more  difficult 
of  attainment.  Labor  unions,  great  corporations,  socie- 
ties of  one  kind  or  another  can  commit  great  wrongs 
against  their  fellow  beings,  while  the  individual  has 
no  sense  of  guilt.  Not  until  the  highest  ideals  of  the 
race  find  expression  in  the  moral  codes  of  social  groups 
within  nations  and  in  all  national  groups,  shall  we  sue- 


PROBLEMS  EMPHASIZED  BY  THE  WAR      387 

ceed  in  moral  education.  The  problem  is  not  simple  in 
the  complexity  of  modem  life,  but  it  is,  after  all,  the 
supreme  task.  This  end  can  best  be  accompHshed  in 
that  school  that  attempts  to  create  in  its  pupils  a  quick- 
ened social  sense  by  providing  the  greatest  possible 
number  of  opportunities  for  practice  in  the  moral  and 
civic  virtues.  We  succeed  well  in  creating  a  prejudice 
in  favor  of  personal  rectitude.  We  must  find  a  method 
of  instilling  in  our  youth  an  equally  strong  prejudice  in 
favor  of  social  and  civic  righteousness  and  of  creating 
in  them  that  social  chivalry  that  will  cause  them  always 
to  put  the  common  good  above  selfish  interests.  The 
supreme  task  of  the  secondary-school  teacher  not  only 
in  the  difficult  and  trying  period  of  reconstruction  but 
always,  in  a  society  becoming  continually  more  com- 
plex socially,  commercially,  and  economically,  is  that  of 
socializing  the  methods  of  the  school,  and  through  these 
methods  giving  the  individual  that  education  that  will 
fit  him  for  the  duties  of  membership  in  this  complex 
society,  that  will  create  in  him  the  capacity  for  initiative 
and  independence  of  thought  and  for  co-operation  with 
his  fellow  beings,  and  that  will  give  him  those  prejudices 
and  interests  which  will  make  him  a  jealous  guardian  of 
the  ideals  of  a  democratic  government. 

During  the  first  century  and  a  quarter  of  our  national 
existence  the  life  of  the  frontier  was  a  powerful  agent 
in  keeping  alive  and  accentuating  the  movements  for 
democracy  in  America.  Professor  Turner  and  others 
have  pointed  out  that  for  more  than  a  century  the  West- 
ern frontier  has  been  the  hotbed  of  democracy  and  that 
again  and  again  popular  movements  have  arisen  in  the 
Western  states  that  have  educated  the  people  on  the 
whole  to  a  more  thoroughgoing  democracy  and  have 
made  our  government  more  and  more  representative 


388  HIGH  SCHOOL  ADMINISTRATION 

and  liberal.  "Jacksonian  democracy,"  with  its  empha- 
sis on  individual  rights,  was  cradled  on  the  Western 
frontier.  The  Republican  party,  with  its  championship 
of  the  Union  and  later  of  the  abolition  of  slavery,  came, 
with  its  great  spokesmen,  from  the  West.  In  latter 
years  the  movement  for  direct  primaries,  the  commis- 
sion form  of  government  in  cities,  and  many  other  for- 
ward-looking reforms,  have  arisen  in  Western  states. 
The  states  of  Washington  and  California  are  to-day  in 
many  respects  by  far  the  most  advanced  of  all  the  com- 
monwealths of  the  Union  in  social  legislation. 

But  the  frontier  no  longer  exists  in  American  life. 
Free  land  has  largely  disappeared.  A  rapidly  increas- 
ing population  can  no  longer  overflow  into  unsettled 
areas.  With  each  succeeding  decade  population  will  in- 
crease in  all  parts  of  the  country.  The  rapid  growth  of 
the  cities  will  continue.  Industrial  and  social  problems 
will  become  more  and  more  baflSing.  The  duties  of 
citizenship  will  become  increasingly  complex  and  will  re- 
quire a  higher  level  of  common  intelligence  and  a  better 
training  for  leadership  than  has  ever  been  required  in 
any  democratic  state. 

In  the  next  century  there  will  be  no  hardy  frontiers- 
men to  keep  bright  the  light  of  freedom  and  liberty. 
That  responsibility  will  fall  to  the  schools,  and  the 
schools  must  become  truly  the  frontiers  of  our  democ- 
racy. 

A  century  ago  President  Madison  said:  "A  popular 
government  without  popular  information  is  but  a  pro- 
logue to  a  farce  or  a  tragedy  or  perhaps  both."  There- 
fore, "The  best  service  that  can  be  rendered  the  coun- 
try next  to  giving  it  liberty  is  in  diffusing  the  mental 
improvement  equally  essential  to  the  preservation  and 
enjoyment  of  that  blessing."     The  fathers  of  the  repub- 


PROBLEMS  EMPHASIZED   BY  THE   WAR      389 

lie  believed  the  safety  of  the  new  nation  would  lie  in  a 
system  of  popular  education.  On  this  belief  the  Ameri- 
can public-school  system  was  built.  If  America  was 
true  to  her  ideals  in  entering  the  Worid  War,  that  fact 
was  largely  due  to  the  success  of  her  public  schools  in 
keeping  bright  in  the  hearts  of  the  people  the  love  of 
freedom  and  justice.  But  this  utterance  of  Madison's 
has  a  more  poignant  meaning  for  Americans  now  than 
ever  before.  The  experiences  of  war  indicate  that  the 
very  existence  of  nations  and  the  endurance  of  right 
ideals  must  depend  upon  systems  of  public  education. 


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and  Retarded  Children  in."  School  Review,  27:695- 
705,  November,  1919. 

Winship,  A.  E. — "The  Junior  High  School."  Journal  of  Edu- 
cation, 83 :  91-92,  January,  1916. 


INDEX 


ABsoLmsTS,  41,  62,  240. 

Aesthetic  education,  25-33. 

Adolescence,  27;  psychological  aspects 
of,  128-134;  relation  to  mental  de- 
velopment, 118-119,  128-134;  re- 
lation to  moral  life,  127-134;  rela- 
tion to  social  instinct,  122,  254-256; 
time  of,  116-117. 

Administration,  18,  340-343. 

Adolescent  period,  1 15-136. 

Agricultural  education,  defined,  74-75- 

Athletics,  in  high  school,  57-61 ;  asso- 
ciations, 124-125;  interscholastic, 
278-281. 

Aumer,  C.  R.,  172. 

Ayres,  L.  P.,  321. 

Becker,  Cari,  362. 

"Better  English  Week,"  305-308. 

"Blind-alley"  occupations,  11. 

Bourne,  R.  S.,  11-12. 

Briggs,  T.  H.,  167,  332. 

Chesterton,  G.  K.,  8. 

Classics,  8s,  96. 

Cleveland  Survey,  319-320. 

"Cole  type,"  168. 

Colvin,  S.  S.,  206. 

Commercial  education,  defined,  74, 75. 

Committee  of  Fifteen,  155. 

Committee  of  Ten,  45,  154,  175. 

Continuation  school,  defined,  76. 

"Cooley  bill,"  106-110,  113. 

Costs  of  education,  335. 

Coiurse  of  study,  66,  67,  78;  allied 
group,  77;  general,  78;  sequential 
group,  77, 78;  vocational,  78;  credits, 
extra,  79,  86;  outside,  79;  record  of, 
164;  unit,  78;  weighted,  330. 

Curriculum,  66-67,  85,  96;  defined,  77; 
differentiation,  19-23,  42-45,  159- 
162,  167,  181-184;  general,  77;  his- 
tory, 174-180;  junior  high  school, 
183,  323;  organization,  20-23,  103, 
143,  146-148,  159-160,  172-186, 
344.  363,  366;  prevocational,  168; 
system,  80;  vocational,  77. 


Decatur,  Illinois,  174-180. 

Dewey,  John,  62,  103-105,  112,  188, 

204,  239,  351,  361,  362,  368,  373. 
Directed  study,  arguments  for,  206- 

210;  arguments  against,    212-216; 

organization  of,  211-216. 
Discipline  school,  52-54,  241. 
Domestic  education,  defined,  74,  75. 
Dual  system  of  education,  93-103 

Edtjcation  of  feelings,  25-33. 
Educational  gmdance,  18,  56-57. 
Educational  method,  50-51,  190-200, 

348-351- 
Effort,  doctrine  of,  49-50. 
Elective  system,  80. 
Elementary  education,  defined,  70-71. 
Elimination  in  high  school,  301-305; 

statistics  of,  302. 
English,  161,  174,  176,  189,  322. 
Entrance  requirements,  high  school, 

46-47;  junior  high  school,  163,  184; 

senior  high  school,  184. 
"Ettinger  plan,"  170. 
Evening  class,  defined,  75. 
Exhibits,  school,  317. 
Experimentalism    in    education,    14, 

317-336. 
Experimentalist,  in  education,  13,  41- 

62,  240. 

Faculty,  high-school,  246-249,  259, 

341-344- 
Failures,  in  high  school,  325-330. 
Foster,  W.  T.,  279. 
Fraternities,  high-school,  125-126. 
French,  134. 

Games,  in  high  school,  274-282. 

"Gary  plan,"  169. 

General  education,  defined,  73,  82. 

German,  164. 

Group  system,  80. 

Gulick,  Luther,  280. 

Hayes,  J.  H.,  363. 

High  school,  definition,  71-72,  82. 

History,  356-380. 

HoUey,  C.  E.,  172,  287. 


397 


398 


INDEX 


"Indiana  sptral  plan,"  i68. 
Individual  differences,  23,  214. 
Industrial  education,  defined,  74,  75. 
Industrial  eflSciency,  583-385. 
Interest,  49,  50. 

Internal  organization  of  schools,  48, 
49.  239-253- 

James,  William,  3,  5,  29. 

Judd,  C.  H.,  205. 

Junior  college,  defined,  73. 

Junior  high  school,  68,  322,  330;  ad- 
ministration, 152-171;  architecture, 
144,  160;  criticisms  of,  148-149;  de- 
fined, 72,  141;  entrance  require- 
ments, 163;  idea,  17;  movement, 
15-17,  41-42,  137,  151,  365;  num- 
ber of  pupils,  166;  teachers,  145 

Keatinge,  M.  W.,  24,  25,  29,  30. 
Kerschensteiner,  Georg,  91,  92,  100. 
Keyser,  Cassius,  96-97. 

Latin,  95,  134,  164,  181. 

"Leavitt  and  Brown  plan,"  168-170. 

Library,  high-school,  283-298;  admin- 
istration, 19;  organization,  284; 
present  situation,  285-296. 

Major,  high  school,  81. 
Manual,  school,  315. 
Marks,  teachers,  326-330. 
Mathematics,  97,  163,  176,  331-332. 
Method,    4-6,    26-30,    71,    250-252; 
educational,   50-51,   190-200,  348- 

351- 
Mihtary  training  in  high  schook,  57- 

61. 
Minor,  high  school,  81. 
Moral  education,  24,  30-32,  241. 
More,  Paul  Elmer,  93-95. 

National  Education  Association, 
154,  166,  202,  345;  Commission  on 
the  Emergency  in  Education,  224; 
Commission  on  Reorganization  of 
Secondary  Education,  371. 

North  Central  Association,  138,  155, 
166,  202,  205,  351,  369. 

"One-pillar  school,"  93. 
Organizations,  school,  123-126. 

Parents,  co-operation  of,  301,  313. 

Part-time  class,  defined,  75. 

Party  platform  of  education,  37,  41- 

61,  240. 
Philosophy  of  education,  1-20. 


Physical    education,    272-283,    383; 

corrective  exercises,  273. 
Plato,  19. 

Pound,  Olivia,  242. 
Prescribed  units  in  high  school,  47. 
Prevocational  education,  defined,  74, 

168-169. 
Principal,  high-school,  221,  225-244, 

316,  337,  355;  supervisory  duties  of, 

227-230. 
Programme  of   studies,   67;   defijied, 

76-77. 
Publicity,  high-school,  299-318. 

Question,  193-198. 

Recitation,  length  of,  193-194,  202- 

203. 
Reorganization  movement,  15,  41-42, 

69,  137-151,  152,  322. 
Repplier,  Agnes,  337. 
Ritter,  W.  E.,  91. 
Robinson,  J.  H.,  371. 
Rousseau,  J.  J.,  31. 
Russell,  Bertrand,  7,  lo. 
Russell,  James  E.,  191-192,  341. 

Santayana,  George,  63-64. 

Sargent,  Dudley,  59. 

Schedule  of  classes,  defined,  77. 

Science,  104. 

School  subject,  defined,  78. 

Sears,  L.  M.,  364. 

Secret   organizations,    257-264,    266, 

342;  statistics  of,  263;  elimination 

of,  310-311. 
Senior  high  school,  68;  defined,  72. 
"Seven  School  Virtues,"  52-53. 
Sex  hygiene,  instruction  in,  119-120. 
Sex  segregation,  135-136. 
Sneddon,  David,  241. 
Social  programme,  225-226,  254-269; 

fundamental  principles  of,  266-268, 

343;  regulations  of,  268. 
Socialized  recitation,  54-55,  187-200. 
Social  science,  356-380. 
Spencer,  Herbert,  19-21,  31. 
Standards  for  American  high  schools, 

46. 
Stevens,  Romiett,  193-197,  334. 
Student  government,   241-244,   249- 

253- 
Study,  H.  P.,  158. 
Sturm,  John,  91. 
Supervised  study,  55-56,  201-217,  236, 

352. 
Supervision,  347-350. 


INDEX 


399 


Teachexs,  35,  190,  216-238,  246; 
causes  of  failure,  232;  council,  224; 
junior  high  school,  147-148;  or- 
ganization of,  222-223;  rating  of, 
233-238,  333;  supervision  of,  218- 
238,  348;  training,  75. 

Teachers  College,  341. 

Terminology,  Lugh-school,  65-88. 

Tests,  standardised,  331-333. 


Unit  covsses  and  cttrmcttla,  138. 
Unit,  credit,  78;  of  instruction,  79,  86. 

Vocational  education,  45,  82,  83, 
38s;  defined,  73. 

Wells,  H.  G.,  6, 
Wilson,  Woodrow,  98-iao. 


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